FateKaleid Prisma Taylor
by Rater202
Summary: There are many facets of the Kaleidoscope. Lord Zeltretch is curious as to why one seems to lack Magecraft, and so sets a Kaleidostick to the task. For good or for ill, that kaleidostick has chosen Taylor Hebert as her master. Rated for language
1. Chapter 1

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

I was up far too late. Winter Break was over tomorrow, so it was back to school, but I was worried. I've been bullied since high school started. Just before break, things had lightened up, but… I was worried that it would pick up again tomorrow. I took a deep breath and got out of bed. I went over to my window and looked outside. It was a clear night and I could see most of the brighter stars.

I don't know how long I'd been looking at the stars when I saw the bright light of a shooting star. On a childish whim, I decided to make a wish.

"Please, let things go well tomorrow," I said. "Just. I wish that they'd get bored with me and move on to some other fucked up hobby."

It was then that I noticed that the shooting star had curved around and… Holy shit it was heading my way! A meteor was heading my way… Or maybe a cape. No time to panic, no time to wake Dad, and no time to get away… I just went back to my bed to wait for whatever was going to happen to happen. A bitter thought crept up to me, and for a second I hoped that it was a meteor. Getting hit by a meteor would certainly be a fitting end for my shitty life.

Less than a minute later, I heard a tapping at my bedroom window. After a minute of tapping and my house not getting destroyed by a meteor, I decided to investigate and found the most peculiar sight: A stick. A white stick, completely smooth, with a small crown charm dangling from a short chain. The stick was topped with a hollow circle containing a four-pointed star, with a pair of golden wings-like what you'd see on a depiction of the Greek God Hermes and his famed sandals, framing the circle. The stick bent in a gentle curve, in a way that made me think it was looking at me, and then tapped the window again.

I didn't know what else to do, so I opened my window and let the stick in. It floated in and twisted around in such a way as to make it seem as though it were looking around the room, before turning back to me.

Then it spoke, in a cultured voice not unlike a noblewoman's. "Hello. What's your name?"

Well, this night can't possibly get any weirder. "Um, my name is Taylor. What are you?"

The stick laughed, "Ohohoho! Where are my manners? I am a magical wand of love and justice, left in this world by my creator, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, in order to investigate abnormalities in its mana flow." Oh god, this was like something out of one of those Japanese cartoons. The stick twirled, "I am the Kaleidostick, Magical Opal!"

Okay, either I'd fallen asleep after all and this was a dream, or I was insane. Either way, I figure playing along couldn't hurt. "So, Magical Opal. That's... interesting, but do you think you can keep it down? I'd rather not wake my Dad."

"Oh, sorry, sorry," the stick said in a quieter voice.

"So," I asked. "What brings you to my room?"

"Oh, that's easy: In order to use my powers to their full extent, I need a master." The stick bent forward just a bit. "I've been looking far and wide for a fitting person and I've finally found one!" The stick was just as loud as before. "You, Taylor, have the greatest potential for magecraft that I've ever seen!"

"And um, why should I help you?"

"Oh, it's simple," the stick replied. "In exchange for helping me, you could become one of the Heroes that are so popular in this world. Think about it, with my help, you could go out and defeat all the world's evils!"

"Look that's all very tempting bu-" the stick cut me off.

"All you have to do, Taylor is…" The stick curved, with the bottom part, pointed towards me "Make a contract with me and become a Magical Girl!"

I suddenly got a very bad feeling about all of this. "Well, um, look, Opal... I'm flattered that you'd choose me for this," I grimaced, "but I'm not interested."

This was apparently the opposite of what the stick thought I'd say. "...What?"

"It's a tempting offer," I answered, "and I'm sorry, but I'm just not interested."

"Butbutbut" The noblewoman vibe I'd been getting from it was gone.

"Look, it's late and I'm tired, do you think you could leave so I can go to sleep?" I'm pretty sure that I'm already asleep and that this is some weird dream, but…

"Oh-okay." The stick was quite literally bent out of shape as it floated out through my window and out of sight. After a minute, I closed the window and went to bed. I almost felt bad for it, but this was all too weird. I fell asleep, though whether it was for real or me just dreaming that I was sleeping is a question for a philosopher.

 **F/KLPT**

After last night's possibly dreamt weirdness, everything this morning was actually going well. I'd gotten up in time, I'd gotten to school, and so far there was no sign of… them. Or any sign of anyone planning anything at all. Everyone else in the hallways was ignoring me, and I was just fine with that.

I started to notice a bad smell as I made my way to my locker. Did something crawl into the vents and die? The smell was almost unbearable by the time I got to my locker. All I wanted to do was get my stuff and get away from the stench before I lost my breakfast all over the floor. I could barely concentrate on my combination, it took me three tries to get my locker open and… Fuck!

Well, I knew where the smell was coming from now. Someone had… Someone had filled my locker with… I don't even know what that shit is, it's just… I threw up all over the floor, and all over myself. I tried to stand up caught the odor of rotting... something again mixed with the smell of my own vomit and I had to bend down and puke again.

After a minute of puking and coughing, and another minute of dry heaving, I was finally able to stand up… Just in time to see an entire hallway full of students staring at me.

"Oh my god Taylor," came a familiar voice, "what do you keep in there?"

I turned to face the speaker, but I didn't need to see her to know who it was: Emma Barnes. My former best friend and the leader of the Trio of bitches who were trying to ruin my life.

"Seriously," she said, "were you keeping your collection of used tampons in there?" Then she pointed at me and started laughing.

The whole hallway was soon filled with laughter as more and more students began to follow her lead. I, I couldn't handle it. I had to get out of there, so I ran for it. I ran through the halls and out the front door, across the street, almost getting hit by a car in the process, and into town. I didn't know where it was I was going-all I knew was that I had to get away from the school.

 **F/KLPT**

I was down by the docks by the time I managed to calm down enough to think. I couldn't go back, not today, and not after that. I needed to leave the docks. The only safe place here was the Dockyard, and I couldn't go there. My dad worked there, and he didn't know about the bullying. I-I didn't want him to know about it.

After a moment of thinking, it came to me: The repair shop! At the edge of the docks, there was an appliance repair shop. Dad knew the owner, Mr. Saito, and while he wasn't exactly a friend, I knew I could trust him. I began walking in that direction when I noticed that I was being followed.

I slowed down and, trying to not to let them know I knew they were following me, turned. I saw two Asian men in green and red. Members of the AZN Bad Boys, the all Asian street gang that operated down here.

I discreetly tried to pick up the pace and turn back forward, but there were two more heading my way. I looked around, but there was no way out. I was trapped, and four Asian gangbangers were closing in on me.

"What'cha doing here, girl" one said to me as they got close.

"I-I"-I didn't get to finish as a second grabbed me.

He asked me, "shouldn't you be in school?"

A third answered him for me. "The girl's clearly skipping."

"We saw you running around earlier little miss," said the fourth. "You know, coming down here, to our docks? Running around and making a scene? That's very disrespectful. Disrespectful to us, and disrespectful to Lung."

Lung was the leader of the ABB. A powerful parahuman with the ability to slowly turn into a scaled monstrosity as a fight raged on and to summon blasts of heat and flame. Some rumors say that if a fight lasts long enough, he'll turn into a real dragon, wings and all.

"Maybe," asked the second man, "we should teach the girl a lesson."

"Maybe we should," said the fourth man, the apparent leader of the group.

Then they all started dragging me behind a nearby building. I tried to struggle, to kick and scream but one of them punched me in the stomach and I gasped as the fight went out of me.

Soon I was being held there, behind a building in the docks, and then the first thug punched me in the chest. I couldn't even scream, he'd knocked the wind out of me. While the second thug kept holding me in place, the other two began beating on me. Punching and kicking, in the chest, and the stomach, and the face. Breaking my glasses, breaking my body. It hurt worse than any other pain I've felt. I tried to leave my body, to just wait until it was over, one way or the other.

I felt the second thug let me go, and I fell to the ground. The thugs each kicked me a few times and then… I felt harsh tugs on my hair as they grabbed it… Oh god. I was covered in vomit, and they'd just been beating me up. They were wiping vomit off their hands with my hair and now it's in my hair and… I couldn't help myself, that's when I finally started crying.

I heard the fourth guy, the leader, say something in Chinese or Japanese, and two of them, I'm not sure which two, started walking away. I couldn't see from where I was lying, but from the sounds of their footsteps, they didn't go far. The leader and the last one started talking in another language. I-I had no idea what they were talking about.

I was just beginning to feel the blood flowing down my face when I heard a whispered voice, "Taylor?"

I opened my eye and saw "...Opal?" That, that wasn't a dream?

"Taylor," the stick said to me. "I can save you, but I can't do it on my own." She or it, or whatever came right next to me and, using one of her wings, wiped some of the blood from my face. "Reach out and grab me, accept my contract, and we can drive them off together."

She extended her handle to me, and I reached out and grabbed her-I had no clue what the contract she asked about last night would entail, but it couldn't possibly be worse that waiting for those bastards to kill me or worse.

There was a flash of light and I could feel something flowing over my body. Within moments I was clad in a white outfit, though I was in too much pain to tell more than that. I began pushing myself up and turned back in time to see that the four thugs who had beaten me were facing me down.

"Taylor," Opal said to me as I pulled myself up. "Swing me at them while thinking something along the lines of 'begone you cretins!' "

I swung Opal like she said while yelling "Fuck off, assholes!"

A crescent of white light with flecks of reds and blues and other colors in it flew from Opal towards the four gangsters… who all ducked it and took off running moments later, one of the screaming "Fuck, she's a cape" as they left.

"Well," Opal said, "that's not what was supposed to happen, but I suppose all that matters is that they're gone. However, Taylor," Opal said in a condescending tone, "language like that is not becoming of a young lady-Especially a Magical Girl."

"Whatever." I honestly didn't care, I just wanted to get home. I started walking away but I stumbled and lost my balance.

"Taylor, be careful," Opal said as I braced myself against the wall. "You've taken a great deal of internal damage. I can heal you but it'll take time and-Taylor!"

I fell and everything was going dark, there was a flash of light and I was back in my normal clothes. The last thing I noticed before I passed out completely was the sound of footsteps coming my way.

 **F/KLPT**

I woke up in a bed and… Actually, things didn't hurt as bad as they should have. I opened my eyes and couldn't see a thing. I tried to look around anyway, but with my glasses broken, it was a futile effort.

.

"You gave me quite a scare, Taylor."

"Dad?"

"I'm here. Taylor… you're very lucky to be alive, you know that?" Dad sounded… Dad was mad. "If Shirou hadn't found you..." Mr. Saito found me? "Taylor, what were you doing down at the docks?"

I started crying. "Dad, when I got to school..." I took a deep breath. "There's a lot of stuff I haven't told you."

So I told him, about the harassment I've faced every day since I started high school. About finding my locker full of used tampons and… Everything. I told him everything, except that Emma was the ringleader. He, he was still friends with Emma's dad. I didn't, I didn't know how he'd react and…

Dad had taken my hand while I'd told him about the bullying. "Taylor, tomorrow, I'm going to go down to that school and give them a piece of my mind. But, there's one more thing."

"What?"

"Miss Militia was here earlier," Dad said. "Apparently, some people saw a few flashes of light coming from where Shirou found you, and a couple of Asian gangsters were overheard saying that the made the mistake of picking a fight with a cape."

Oh crap, oh… I could see something floating a few feet above Dad's head. I couldn't make it out without my glasses, but it looked vaguely like Opal, but without her handle. Dad didn't seem to notice that she was there.

"Taylor, do you have powers?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that. Did I tell Dad about Opal, or did I try to keep her a secret? "I-I don't know."


	2. Chapter 2

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

"Compact Full Open. Mirror World Circuits: Maximum Engage!"

With Opal's incantation, I found myself in a field of white with stars forming a prism of many bright colors flying past me. I held my arms out and could see the same white-and-color-flecked light I'd hurled at those thugs the other day spreading over the before it popped and I was wearing gloves. More light flowing from my neck down my chest and belly to form some kind of dress. I felt something heavy form around my shoulders and turned back to see a cape taking shape, and felt the sensation of the light flowing down my legs to form boots of some sort. Finally, a bit of light formed upon my head, and with a pop I was back standing in my basement, posing in front of a mirror that Opal had talked Dad into putting down here.

Speaking of which, "Dad, why are you looking away?"

"You um," Dad began sheepishly, "you were naked for about half a minute."

I blinked. I then took the wand in my hand and began to throttle it.

"Opal," I growled as I shook the stick, "when were you planning to tell me that?"

"I had assumed that you knew," Opal began, unfazed by my abuse, "Have you honestly never seen a magical girl anime? Regardless, your attempts to strangle me will prove fruitless as I don't have a throat."

After a few more squeezes I sighed and let her go, turning back to look in the mirror. Now that I could get a better look at myself, I noticed that there was a lot of white and a lot of fur in my Magical Girl outfit. A simple white gown, no sleeves, with gold trim covered my torso, blooming from the waist down into a mini skirt that was trimmed with gold at the top and white fur at the bottom. The outfit had thigh high white stockings and knee high white boots, which were, like the skirt, trimmed with fur. On my arms were elbow length white gloves, which like my skirt and boots were fur trimmed. Turning around I noticed that my gown was backless for some reason, and that the cape was layered-a heavy layer of solid white fabric, and a thin shear layer flecked with sparkly specks of color. The bottom of the cape and the shoulders were lined with, what else, white fur. I turned back to face the mirror and lifted the cape to see another layer of sparkly fabric on the inside of the cape, and that the clasp was a gold chain. Finally I noticed that my hair was pushed back a bit more than I normally wore it, that my glasses were gone, and that I was wearing a simple golden tiara with a pair of wings, like Opal's, swooping back near my temples and a single, well, opal, at my forehead.

"So," I said after a good minute of silence, "My costume is 'Princess of the Hooker People of the Great North?' "

Opal gasped. "How dare you Taylor?" she asked in a scandalized tone. "This outfit is derived from the traditional magical girl costume and adapted for our circumstances. It is regal, and is practical for both indoor and outdoor wear." Opal sniffed. "Honestly, to compare it to the clothing worn by a common lady of the evening..."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." I wasn't, just looking over this outfit I could tell that it would be embarrassing to wear… And it didn't have a mask, so if I wasn't careful people would know that it was me in this humiliating outfit.

"Apology accepted… However," my magic wand said, "your outburst has given me the most wonderful idea, Master."

I was suddenly filled with a sense of impending doom.

Opal loudly proclaimed, "Registration Complete! Introducing the newest Magical Girl, Kaleid Liner Prisma Princess!"

"...No. Fuck no, that is not my cape name!" God damnit, the outfit was bad enough but…

"Whatever you say, Princess." I felt my eyes begin to twitch at Opal's words. "And again, such language is totally inappropriate for an elegant young lady."

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever." We'd probably end up fighting about this later, but... I turned to Dad "What do you think?"

"Well," Dad began, "I've definitely seen worse outfits. I'd feel better about it if the outfit had a mask-"

"Out of the question," Opal interrupted, "not a single magical girl has ever worn a mask"

"But," I interrupted, "Dad has a point Opal. If I don't have a mask, then people can find out who I am." I thought for a moment, about people coming after Dad because I got into a fight with them and… "You know what. Never mind. We, we still haven't decided if I'm going to be a cape or not."

Dad nodded when I said that… He um, he hadn't been happy when it came up that I had to help Opal with her mission. We um… We'd said that we'd talk about me being a cape later.

"So," Dad said, "why don't we change the subject. Opal, you've said that you're here to study something, but you weren't very clear. I'd feel better if I knew what it was you wanted her to do."

I hadn't even thought to ask what she actually wanted.

"Oh, it's all quite simple," Opal began. "As I said to Taylor the other night, I was left in this world by my creator, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, in order to investigate abnormalities in its manaflow." Opal flew from my hands and sort of floated around between me and Dad. "Which is to say, that a few years ago, when my master was visiting this world, he noticed something… off about it. Quite simply,"Opal continued, "there's plenty of prana but hardly any magi, those who did exist possessed far below average ability, as far as he could tell, and there were certainly no phantasmal species."

...I had to ask: "In English, Opal?"

"Oh." She sounded apologetic for a moment. "Lots of magical energy," she said, "hardly anyone who can use it."

"And you need Taylor's help finding out why?" asked Dad.

"Correct, Mister Hebert," Opal replied. "Or rather, I need a wielder. Really, any magus would work, but even when I can find one their magic circuits would be too low quality or too low in number to be suitable, and none of them seemed to have even the foggiest clue what magecraft was."

I suddenly got the feeling that we were going to be discussing this for a while. "What are magic circuits?"

"Well Princess-" My eye twitched. "Magic circuits are essentially a grid made of specialized nerves. Magi have them in their bodies, and they are what allow the magi to store and channel prana, which in turn allows them to use magic." Magic? "It's not exactly common in my world of origin, but here there is practically no one with circuits plentiful enough and of high enough quality to use more than rudimentary magecraft."

"And I have these circuits?" I was skeptical. You'd think something like extra nerves would have come up on a medical exam or something right? I mean, they x-rayed me after… the other day.

"Yes, you do Princess." Opal turned around to face me and her wings bent in a way that made me think she was winking. "You've got quite a few magic circuits, the most I've seen of anyone on this world, and of high quality too." Her tone made it sound like a compliment, but I still wasn't fully sure of what this all meant. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that you were the heir of a family of magi or even a homunculus."

Dad asked this time. "Homunculus?"

"An artificial human created with alchemy," replied Opal. "They're known to have large numbers of high quality circuits, just like Taylor... However," Opal said in a different tone, "with the number and quality of circuits and the potency of her Od-That is to say, her vital energy, Taylor should practically be swimming in prana. Instead, she has barely any."

That was concerning. "Should, should I be worried, Opal?"

"Ohnonono, Princess," the stick replied. "You don't need prana to live or be healthy, and now that I'm here I can easily top off your reserves-using the Second Magic to borrow magical energy from other worlds is one of my primary functions," she bragged, though that raised more questions. "We're starting to get off topic, however." I could have sworn that Opal coughed, despite her claiming to not have a throat. "The point I'm making is that I know what the abnormality is, but I don't know what's causing it. Investigating it is a long term mission, one that can't even begin until you've at least mastered the basics of magical girlhood, Princess."

"Give me a minute," I asked. "That, that's all a lot to take in." I took a minute to process everything Opal said, I couldn't help but feel that we'd have to go over this again later.

"So," I asked when I was ready, "how exactly do we go about doing that? Training to get the basics, I mean."

"Hmmm. Is there a place in town where you would be expected to have a bit of privacy," Opal asked, "but where people wouldn't notice or wouldn't care about collateral damage?"

"The boat graveyard is an eyesore that a lot of people would love to see gone," Dad answered to Opal. "But I'm pretty sure that the Parahuman Response Team keeps an eye on it. It's pretty popular for the gangs to hang out there and people steal parts from the ships all the time." Dad clarified.

"Hmm… Better than nothing." I'm not even sure how to describe the shape Opal bent into, but she sounded contemplative. "Now, how do we get there from here?"

"Look, I'm not so sure I'm comfortable letting Taylor go out, especially this late, on her own." I, I'm… I can understand Dad not wanting me to go out, after the other day, but…

"Dad,"I interrupted, "it'll be fine, I've got Opal."

"Yes, Mister Hebert," Opal added, "a Magical Girl possesses a level of power comparable to a Heroic Spirit." Opal flew back to my hand, clearly intending for me to grab her, which I did. "Such base cretins as those who attempted to harm Taylor would be as ants beneath her regal heel."

Dad was silent for a full minute. "Okay. Just, don't stay out too late, and if anyone… really dangerous shows up, leave… And don't leave like… that." He gestured vaguely in my direction.

I looked down at my humiliating outfit… Yeah, there was no way I could go out like this without drawing too much attention. "Opal, how do I-" there was a flash and in less than a second I was back in my civilian clothes.

"...Opal," I began, "why did it take so much longer to change one way than it did to change back?" And now that I thought about it, it'd only taken a few seconds at the most back on the ally and… "What was with the light show just a bit ago? That didn't happen the first time."

"Oh, well Princess," Opal began sheepishly, "your first trance took place in an emergency situation, so I skipped the transformation sequence. Likewise, there's no point in going through the sequence when you're untrancing."

"...So," I began flatly. "You're saying that you left me naked for half a minute on purpose?" Opal did not respond. "I hate you so much right now."

 **F/KLPT**

Opal wiggled out of my hair shortly after I stepped onto the bit of dock before the boat graveyard.

"Oh Princess," she said as she shifted from her smaller form to full stick form, "I do so love your hair. It's so soft and regal and amazing."

"Oh," I said softly. I took a lot of pride in my hair. It was one of the few things I had that reminded me of Mom, so… "Thank you, Opal."

"It's such a shame that you don't take as good care of the rest of yourself as you do your hair."

I felt my eye begin to twitch. "And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Shoosh, not now," replied the annoying white stick. "And mind your language, young lady."

I rolled my eyes. I got the feeling that I'd be doing that a lot from now on. "So, what now?"

Opal presented herself to me, so I grabbed her. In a flash of light I was back in my hooker princess suit. "Ordinarily, Magecraft requires years of study to perform all but the most basic mysteries. However, Princess-" God I hope no one hears her calling me that-" with a Kaleidostick such as myself, knowledge of magecraft is drawn not only from my personal reserves of information but from any potential wielders alternate versions of myself have had as well as any alternate versions of my wielder."

"Layman's terms, Opal."

"In layman's terms, Princess," I think she was calling me that to annoy me, "all of the knowledge of prana manipulation and the natural and scientific laws of the World that you would normally need to work Magecraft are inside of me. All you need to do is feel an emotion or picture yourself working the mystery," the stick bent in my hand in such a way a to face me, "and I do the hard part so that we can get to the fun part right away."

"So," Opal continued after straightening herself, "all you need to remember for now is that you don't need to think: You need to imagine!"

"Okay," I began, "so if I want to blast something with that energy-"

"A prana cannon," Opal interrupted.

"If I want to blast something with the prana cannon," I continued, "I just have to swing you at something and think about blasting the shit out of it?"

"Well, yes… If you want to phrase it so crudely."

I thought it over for a moment, the swung her towards one of the ships while picturing a big blast of energy flying from her towards it. Like the picture in my head, a massive beam of white filled with prismatic stars fired from Opal's head. Unlike what I pictured, the ship was blown to smithereens. Luckily most of the flaming debris landed in the water but-a horrible thought came to mind.

"Opal… You um… You don't think anyone was in there, do you?"

"I didn't detect any living presence in that… particular, ship, Princess..." Opal sounded hesitant. "However, I think that further practice of the prana canon should be delayed until you've proven to me that you can imagine less… destructive beams."

A couple of people were yelling and a raggedy looking man climbed out of a door on the side of another ship, jumped down, and started running-he wasn't heading my way and I don't think he saw me, but… "Opal, we need to leave. Th-there's no way in Hell that people didn't hear that." I ran from where I was and ducked behind a derelict building.

"We'll be seen if you just try and walk out, Princess." Opal hmmed. "I was going to try and save this for a later date, but I suppose I should try and teach you to fly."

That came as a surprise. "...I can fly?"

"Of course, Princess," Opal said, in a tone like if I'd asked if the sky was blue or if blood was red. "All magical girls can fly."

"Okay Opal," I replied, "spill it. How do I fly?"

"Oh, it's very simple," she answered. "You just have to picture yourself flying."

That sounded easy enough, so I imagined myself flying. Well, I tried to at least... but I couldn't do it. I-I just couldn't. Every time I tried, I thought back to Emma. She was my best friend for my entire childhood… We'd played capes and robbers as children, as all children did, and every time I tried to imagine myself flying I'd think back to Emma and me taking turns pretending to be Alexandria and the wounds left by my best friend's betrayal began to ache.

"Opal, I'm trying... but I can't. I just can't do it."

"You can't picture yourself soaring freely through the air, as all of mankind has dreamed since time immemorable? Hmm..." I'm not sure how to respond to that, or what kind of 'hmm' it was meant to be. "Can you imagine yourself feeling great joy and freedom?"

Again, I tried but… I backed up against the wall and started to slide down. "I don't think I can… I, I don't think I'll be able to fly Opal."

"Nonsense! You're a Magical Girl, Princess. You can do anything as long as you believe in yourself."

"That's just it, Opal…"A dark realization was beginning to sink in. "I don't think I can."

"What?" Opal asked, incredulous to my plight. "Why not?"

"You were there," I said, "in the hospital when I-"

"What?" There was almost no inflection on Opal's word. "Are you seriously saying that you are going to allow threats and harsh words from brutes and cretins not fit to lick your regal boots stop you from being the best you can be?"

"The-there's a part I left out. Opal, the ringleader… The bitch-" Opal didn't chastise me-" who started all of this? She… She was my best friend."

"Please, Princess, explain?"

So I did. I told Opal about Emma. About how close we'd been, about how Emma had changed while I was away at summer camp. About how she'd used everything she'd known about me as a weapon to hurt me. About how I was utterly alone. I didn't cry, not once. I was out of tears to shed over the loss of my best friend.

"Taylor," Opal began as I finished, "do you know why I was there to save you? Why I followed you, after you sent me away the night we met?"

I shook my head.

"You're simply the only person I've met in years who could be my master. I've been here, in this world, for a very long time, Taylor." Opal… I hadn't heard that tone of voice since Emma… "I'd begun to despair, you see, and fear that I'd never complete my mission. I felt as if I was alone in the universe," Opal solemnly declared. "Then, as I flew over this city, I felt your presence and I sensed your potential." Opal took on a dreamy tone, "My nonexistent heart began to soar when I sensed you, exactly the kind of person I was looking for." Opal flew from my hand and floated straight before me. "Meeting you gave me hope, Taylor."

"So," she continued, now back to her regal tone, "I don't ever want you to feel alone, because I'm here for you, always." She bent in such a way as to give the impression of a friendly smile. "And if that traitor honestly hurt you so bad that you can't believe in yourself, that's okay, because I believe in you, and if that's not enough then I darn will make it enough!" She presented her handle to me. "Now please, Princess. Stand up, take a deep breath, and try again. Just one more time, try to fly. I know that you can do it," she finished with complete certainty.

I smiled. I couldn't help it, after what Opal said. I stood and took her, and I closed my eyes. I tried to focus on the feeling that Opal's words gave me. Opal said that joy and freedom would let me fly. That wasn't what I felt, but it was closer than anything I could think of right now.

"Open your eyes, Princess."

I did, and there I was, floating a foot off of the ground.

"Congratulations, Princess," Opal said with joy and pride in her voice, "I knew you could do it. Now, try to remember what you're feeling right now."

I didn't know how else to answer so I just nodded.

"Now that you know that you can fly, can you picture yourself soaring, flying around the moon and far beyond the sky?"

I took a moment, just one, before I answered, "I think so."

"Very good, Princess," she said as though with a smile. "Now, try and fly higher-as high as you can!"

I did my best to imagine myself soaring freely, and and kept my thoughts on Opal's words from before-and I took off into the sky like a rocket. I must have been miles over Brockton Bay by the time I stopped ascending.

"Marvelous, simply marvelous!" I could hear the pride ringing out in her voice. Sh-she was proud of me. "You're quite a natural, Princess. Flying is a rather complicated bit of magecraft, after all, with many magi never learning it even with years of study. Even some magical girls have trouble."

What? "But you said-"

"I never said it was easy, Princess," Opal said with a laugh, "I only said that all Magical girls could do it, and that I believed that you could." She laughed again, "honestly, if I'd said how hard it really was, do you think you could have flown this high?"

I didn't answer. I didn't know. I looked at the city miles below me. On the surface, Brockton Bay was a festering shithole, but from up here my home town was beautiful. Up here, it felt like a huge weight that I'd been carrying my whole life had just melted away. This, this made it all-the humiliating outfit, Opal's nagging about being a proper young lady and her embarrassing nickname for me-being up here in the sky made it all worth it.

"Thank you, Opal."

"You're very welcome, Princess."


	3. Interlude 1

**Interlude the First**

Taylor had been so happy when she'd gotten home. She'd spoken a mile a minute about how she'd flown. It had almost been like she'd been before… She'd been out half an hour later than she'd said she'd be back by, and Danny had wanted to be mad, but it'd been so long since she'd smiled like that. Taylor had gone to bed, just half an hour ago, and Opal had flown down into the living room.

"Opal," Danny called out, "could I talk to you?"

"Of course, Mister Hebert," the stick answered, "Actually I was hoping to talk with you about Taylor."

"What else is there to talk about right now?" The man and the wand shared a laugh. "Anyway, I heard an explosion not that long after the two of you left..."

"Ah, yes, um..." the stick sounded embarrassed. "That was us. You should be proud to have a daughter with such potential..."

"Oh, believe me, I am." Danny smiled. "So, she flew. That's an impressive bit of magecraft."

"Oh yes, it is and..." the stick froze in mid air. "How did you know that?"

It was Danny's turn to smile. "Oh, you learn those things when you're born into a family of mages, even if I was never very good at magecraft myself." The stick was speechless. "Of course, that was before the prana disappeared… Or so I thought before you showed up."

Opal was twisted in a shape of confusion. "You… You're a magus? You, you know what the anomaly is?"

"Was a magus, and only a fifth rate one from a minor family at that," answered Danny. "To be fair, I was technically the heir, but only because I was the only Hebert with any magecraft capability born in my generation."

"Fascinating," the stick answered, "but seriously, the anomaly?"

"No clue," Danny said to the stick, "the number of mages being born had been in decline for centuries. Last I heard, the Mage's Association was just five guys who got together to drink beer and play cards while talking about the good old days." Danny laughed in a bitter way. "Then, a few years before parahumans started showing up, the magic disappeared… Again, or so I thought. I can tell you when it happened, but I have no clue how or why."

"Well," Opal began, "knowing when the anomaly began is a big help by itself. And being a descendant of magus family, even a small one… Well, prodigious numbers of circuits appearing randomly in a single generation aren't unheard of…" Opal twisted herself into a questioning shape, "Did Taylor's mother come from a magus family as well?"

Danny shook his head. "Not as far as I could tell. She never gave any sign of knowing a thing about magecraft, and the only odd thing about her childhood, as far as she told me, was that she was homeschooled till she was seven."

"Hmm, still, Mister Hebert, your daughter makes so much more sense coming from a magus family." Opal straightened and then curved in a manner reminiscent of stretching. "May I ask what your family's spells were?"

"Mostly transferring prana into objects," Danny answered. "We were specialized in creating mystic codes."

"Interesting," the sapient mystic code said, "Did your family have a crest?"

"Yes, but I don't have it," Danny himself stretched, "it's sealed away in storage somewhere. My father wanted to wait and see if one of my children would be able to use the family mysteries, but the prana seemingly vanished well before I had any kids..."

Opal finished for him, "and Taylor's much too old to take the Crest now, isn't she?"

"Probably," Danny answered, "and even if she wasn't I still wouldn't give it to her."

Opal bent, intrigued. "Why not Mister Hebert?"

Danny shrugged. "Most magi are assholes."

Danny figured that Opal would have blinked, had she been capable. "Is that… it?"

"No, but it's a good enough reason by itself." Danny stood up from his seat. "Opal, the life of a magus is dangerous. I never said anything about magic, until now, because I didn't think there was a point to it, but now?" Danny paused for just a moment. "I don't want the life of a magus for Taylor." Danny looked Opal in the star… He was pretty sure that that's where her eyes would be if she had them. "Opal, please. Don't tell Taylor anything I've told you."

Opal was silent for a moment, before answering, "Okay, Mister Hebert."

"Thank you, Opal." Danny sat back down. "Can I ask you a question, Opal?"

"Of course, Mister Hebert."

"I'm a bit curious about Taylor's magical aptitude. Can you tell a magus' origin?"

"No, Mister Hebert, such analysis is beyond me. However," Opal added in a sly tone, "I have a general idea of Taylor's elemental alignment, from feeling how her prana flows. It feels as if Taylor would be equally adept with any of the five standard elements. From this," Opal said with pride in her voice, "while I don't quite know what her Origin is, I feel that it's safe to conclude that my new master is..."

"An Average One… Holy shit." Despite the name, being an Average One was quite rare. Danny pumped his fist into the air.

"Yes, however crudely you put it. However, Mister Hebert, I feel that we've gotten a bit off topic. What was it that you'd initially wanted to speak about?"

"I'm… I'm worried about Taylor, Opal. She has to go back to that school Monday, and I'm afraid that whoever it was that filled her locker with that, that filth, will try something again." Danny sighed. "You'll be going along with her, hiding in her hair like you were when the two of you left?"

"Of course," the stick answered.

"Can you try and keep an eye on her?"

Opal responded with a flurry of emotion,"try and stop me! Those cretins will rue the day they decided to pick a fight with my master!"

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, Opal," Danny said in response, "but could you keep it down? I don't want to wake Taylor."

"Oh, sorry, sorry," Opal replied in a harsh whisper.

Danny chuckled, before turning serious. "I just wish there was some way to catch Taylor's bullies in the act."

"There may well be, Mister Hebert," began Opal mischievously, "there may well be."

"Oh?"

"I'm far from the only Kaleidostick, Mister Hebert," Opal explained. "We have ways of communicating amongst ourselves, at least when we're in the same world. I happen to have both audio and video recording capability as well as a projector stored within myself for exactly that reason. If I just happen to be recording Taylor's interactions with certain cretins..."

Danny smiled, a mischievous smile, normally seen on young boys or on sadistic serial killers. "I like the way you think, Opal."


	4. Chapter 3

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

Flying high over the city, I quickly swung Opal while yelling "scatter shot!" With my declaration, half a dozen baseball sized blasts of prana flew off into the sky. With a flourish and a jab they were joined by a long concentrated beam that I called "magi-lance!" It felt a little silly calling my attacks like that, but Opal had said that it would help me picture the exact prana cannon I wanted, and after that first night I didn't want to take any risks.

"You're doing wonderful, Princess," Opal declared with just a hint of pride.

I smiled, "Thanks, Opal."

The stick in my hand bent in my hands in a way I'd come to think of as a smile. "I think you're ready to start investigating with me."

"Oh, have you figured out where to start?" That hadn't taken very long.

"I think so, Princess," Opal straightened, "these last few nights I've noticed a few… oddities, in the local prana flow. I'm not sure if it's related to the greater anomaly, but it's worth a look."

"Alright then Opal," I said to the magic wand, "you want to check it out now, or-"

"Nonono, I'm not quite sure of what it is or how long it'll take, and you do have school in the morning." Huh, the first day back after my beating… Dad had talked to the school, they said they'd keep an eye out for me and try and find out who filled my locker with…

Opal must have sensed my apprehension. "It'll be alright, Princess. I'll be with you. Now, why don't we get home so that you can get your beauty rest." I shook my head in amused exasperation. "Besides, I've been meaning to talk to your father about trash the two of you have been eating."

I rolled my eyes, "Opal, we haven't been eating trash."

"If you say so, Princess."

I shook my head again and started flying back down to the ground.

 ***F/KLPT***

Students weren't allowed on the school roof, and I was no exception, so I had to be alert and careful to sneak up here. I needed to get away. Nobody had said anything, but the looks… The school roof seemed like a good place for privacy on my lunch break. Opal wiggled out of my hair once I'd managed to hide behind the stairwell.

"Are you alright Princess?" she asked, concerned.

I let out a sigh as I sat down. "I'm fine, Opal. I just needed to get away from everyone for a while."

"Alright, Princess." She left me alone for a bit, as I ate my lunch, but after a few minutes she spoke up again. "I didn't see much of the trouble you've told your father and myself about."

Did, did… "I wasn't lying, I-"

Opal cut me off. "That's not what I meant to imply, Princess," she said reassuringly. "I just mean that perhaps those who had sought to harm you may have ceased such attempts?"

"That'd be nice, Opal, but..." I shook my head, "I think that they're just scared to do anything so soon." I didn't know if the school would actually keep an eye out for that kind of shit I've had to put up with, but I'm pretty sure that they've at least said as much.

Opal hmmed. "Perhaps. Perhaps not, the only thing to do is to wait. What kind of things did they even do, prior to the incident that made you flee?"

"Oh, you know, the usual stuff..." Did she really want me to go through all of that again? "Um, there's this one who does grabbing and hitting, and one who likes to steal my homework and pour stuff on me, but it's mostly like what Emma does-harsh words meant to tear me down. We, we've been over this, Opal, why are you asking?"

"I know what they've done to you," Opal began in a soft tone, "I just want to know what they've said, exactly."

"Why? Why do you want to know?"

"So that I know what to look out for, Princess."

"Why? Why do you need to look out for anything?"

"Because you're my master, Princess," Opal said flatly, as though it were one of the most obvious things in the world. "And more importantly, because you're my friend. Is it so wrong to want to be absolutely sure when you're in trouble so that I know exactly when to offer whatever help I can?"

"...No," I took a deep breath, "it's mostly just… You know how it is, I told you about how Emma uses secrets I've told her, but most of the bi-cretins-" Opal preferred that I not swear, and I'd rather she not lecture me right now, "most of them just do the standard high school "mean girl" things, like talk about how thin and plain and ugly I

"Hmmph, you're not plain and ugly Princess," said Opal, scandalized.

I shrunk away, I, I…

"You're not," Opal repeated.

I didn't respond.

Opal came down and patted me on the head with one of her wings.

"It's true though," I said to her after a moment. "I'm not beautiful like Emma or cute like Madison. Even Sophia has that fit athletic look."

"Princess," Opal asked in an even tone. "What makes that traitor beautiful?"

"She, she's tall… she's a model," I frowned. "Her mouth isn't too big for her face, she's not too thin, she's got..." I sort of made a double curve shape in the air with my hands.

"Hmm, Princess," Opal said in the most comforting tone I'd heard from her yet, "the first thing you need to realize is that large breasts are a crutch for women who lack presence."

I blinked. "You're not about to give me that load of crap about how looking good on the outside doesn't matter as long as you've got a good personality, are you?"

"Ononono, looks are important. It's sad, but that's the world we live in." Opal came around so that we could talk face to face. "Which isn't to say that a good personality isn't just as important, but that's not what I mean either." Opal cleared her non-existent throat. "Rather, looks are only one part of beauty. Confidence in the way you hold yourself and the way you conduct yourself, a strong presence is more important." Opal flexed her wings, "and trust me if they feel the need to tear you down, then at least some of them lack presence."

I chuckled, "That doesn't really help me, Opal."

"Not yet, Princess, but it will," Opal answered in a mischievous tone, "if you can out presence them, all but the most dedicated will lose their nerve when they come up against you."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" I quietly asked.

"Shoosh, baby steps princess," she didn't sound like she meant to be condescending, but… "for now, just try to smile."

I blinked, "what?"

"Smile, Princess, if any of those people stare at you, just think of something that makes you happy and smile." It sounded so simple when she said it but…

"What, what should I…?"

"You like flying, don't you, Princess?"

I did. The freedom of flying was one of the few things that made me forget… I nodded yes.

"Then just remember, Princess…" Opal paused dramatically, "you can fly, and those cretins can not."

I couldn't help it, I laughed. "Thank you, Opal." I finished my lunch and stood up to leave. "Okay, back in my hair. I need to get going before someone gets suspicious."

 **F/KLPT**

I touched down outside of Winslow's front doors just after midnight.

"I cannot believe that the magical disturbance you sensed was here, Opal"

"Well, one of the disturbances, Princess," my wand corrected, "I sensed another elsewhere in the city, and I suspect that there may be at least one more."

I rolled my eyes, "whatever Opal. So, where is it exactly?"

"The strongest anomalous fluctuations are coming from the exact middle of the parking lot."

"...You couldn't have said that while we were flying, Opal." Seriously, I thought we'd actually have to go in the school.

I lifted back off into the air and flew the thirty or so feet to the actual location of the disturbance. It was faster this way… And I liked to fly. Upon landing, I held Opal in both hands and pointed her outwards.

Opal "hmmed," then bent in my hands to turn up and look at me. "This is most unusual, Princess."

"How so?"

"This is a mirror world, Princess."

When Opal didn't clarify, I spoke up. "Opal, I know basically nothing about magic. What's a mirror world?"

"A mirror world, Princess, is a pocket dimension that reflects the portion of the world around its point of entry," Opal began in a scholarly tone, "only a small handful of things are capable of generating one."

"So now what Opal?"

"So now, we go inside to see what's causing it." Suddenly there was a dark pit beneath me filled with rainbow lights.

"Opal, this is-"

"Adding imaginary axis to the fifth instrumental variable." The world around us was starting to get blurry. "Beginning inversion process. Confirming that complex space exists." Opal began glowing in my hands and I could no longer see anything around us. "Central coordinates established." A bunch of lines in the same white and rainbow of Opal's prana cannon began forming over the pit, starting from my feet. "Establishing mirror road with a two-meter radius." The lines formed a circle and a five-pointed star. "Beginning partial inversion of mirror world circuits."

"Opal, you're freaking me out," seriously, you don't just take somebody into a different… Holy shit. Everything was clear again… Except the ground was a mirror, perfectly reflecting the buildings and sky above it… Then something shifted, I got a bit dizzy, and then everything was back to normal… Except for the sky, I noticed when I looked up, which appeared to be made of triangles.

"Opal… Next time, I'm going to need a bit more warning before you go jumping worlds on me."

"Oh, I'm sorry Princess," she at least sounded embarrassed and a bit apologetic, "I was just so excited to finally get to work."

I sighed, "Okay, now, how exactly do we go about investigating this mirror world th-"

It was at this point that I was cut off by a gunshot and a sharp pain in my shoulder.

Opal shouted, "Taylor, fly!' So I did, as high as I could.

"Opal… Back when you saved me, you could tell how hurt I was… How hurt am I?" I was breathing heavily. Oh god, this was supposed to be a simple thing and now I've been shot.

"Calm down Princess," Opal answered, "as far as I can tell, it was a glancing blow. I should have you healed in no time."

I sighed in relief and then turned back to look at the ground. It was hard to see from up here, but I could make out a man in tattered gray pants and an equally tattered black vest, graying skin, and thinning white hair. It was aiming a pistol of some kind up at me, waiting for me to move.

"Opal," I said as I felt the pain in my shoulder receding, "what the fuck is that?"

"Taking the number of things capable of generating a mirror world into account," Opal declared without commenting on my language, "it can only be a manifestation of a Heroic Spirit."

I blinked and took a deep breath to calm myself, "you mentioned those before, what are they?"

"To keep it simple, Princess, a Heroic Spirit is born when a famous or infamous individual of great skill or power dies." So it was a famous ghost? "Rather than… well, I don't quite know what normally happens when someone dies, but instead of that, the person becomes a powerful spirit with abilities far beyond that of ordinary mortal humans."

"So a legendary dead guy is living in a mirror world in my high school parking lot?" ...I going to start keeping a list of things I'd never thought I'd say before I met Opal.

"Well… Not exactly, but the specifics can come later."

"So," I asked, "how do you beat one?"

"The same way you beat anything, really," Opal answered, "hit it until it dies."

"...And how do I do that without getting shot?"

"The spirit seems to be a younger one, so it'll be a weaker one. The gun implies that it's a ranged specialist… If you can get in close, you might be able to overpower it... " Opal muttered some stuff I couldn't make out… "The firearm does not seem to have any mystical properties of its own, judging from the damage inflicted. With the reinforcements being in the tranced state should give you, as long as you're not hit directly you shouldn't suffer damage that'll put your life in danger… However, the spirit's Noble Phantasm-that is to say, it's ultimate skill or weapon, is unknown..."

"...How screwed am I, Opal?"

"Not very, if you're careful."

After a minute in a Mexican standoff with the spirit, I took my chances and swung Opal at it while shouting "scatter shot!," sending a barrage of prana blasts in its direction heading right before I quickly flew, in a curve, towards where I expected the spirit to be.

My cunning plan was foiled by the spirit dodging to the left, then quickly shooting at me. I took the bullet in the thigh, and I feel I would have collapsed were I not flying. I held Opal in front of me and hissed "physical protection! " forming a four pointed star shaped barrier between myself and the spirit just in time to block another bullet.

I let go of Opal with one hand to check my thigh. I wasn't bleeding, so it couldn't have been that bad, and the pain was starting to recede as before. Once more, the Spirit held it's gun aimed dead at me. This close, I could make out more details… The cowboy boots, that its pistol was a revolver, and that it very strongly resembled a corpse.

"Well that's not terrifying," I said upon taking in the corpses visage. "Opal, I think that I'm about to do something very reckless."

"Princess, what do you mean-" Opal was cut off by my pushing forward, flying towards the spirit while the barrier from physical protection was still in place, pushing it towards the spirit where it took every one of the bullets the spirit shot at my way… More than that gun should hold, but magic's weird.

I managed to get up to ramming speed and bowl the spirit over while it continued to shoot, and I kept pushing. This mirror world resembled the parking lot and exterior of Winslow, and I used that to my advantage by pushing the spirit into one of Winslow's outer walls, pinning it.

"Opal, I need you to count off for me, because on three, I'm going to drop the barrier and blast the crap out of this thing!"

"Alright,' Opal answered. "One."

I thought of the ship I blasted apart my first night training with Opal.

"Two."

The corpse-looking spirit began twitching and glared at me with its dead eyes.

"Three!"

I dropped the shield and prepared to blast, but with great speed-greater than I'd thought it capable of, it whipped it's hand around and pointed its gun at my head. It shouted, in surprisingly clear English, "Thunder-" but was cut off by the massive prana canon I fired at it point blank.

The smoke cleared to reveal the simulacrum of the school leveled and a corpse man standing up out of the rubble. At first, I thought the fight would continue and I'd have to come up with some other way of beating it, but then it sort of faded away, leaving a card of some kind in its place. I let out a sigh of relief.

"As I suspected," Opal spoke up, "a class card." The card in question floated to the ground. "Take it, Princess."

"What's a class card?" I asked as I stepped into the rubble, "I thought it was a heroic spirit?"

"It is, Princess," Opal said, "and you should be proud of yourself for defeating it, but a Heroic Spirit rarely leaves the Throne of Heroes where they reside. Usually what you encounter would be a lessened copy of the Spirit summoned through other means, usually as a Servant."

"And class cards are one of those means?" After getting to where the spirit had vanished, I picked up the card and took a look. There was a picture of a medieval warrior with a bow and a red skirt, with the word "Archer" at its feet.

"Yes and no, Princess. Class Cards contain a mostly mindless copy of a Heroic Spirit. Properly utilized, they could grant a wielder access to the powers of the heroic spirit within." Opal wiggled out of my grip and flew around to face me. "But, under certain circumstances, they will instead manifest as a corrupted and evil version of the spirit they contain."

"You seem to know a lot about these things, Opal."

"Oh, well," Opal answered, "my older sisters were once sent on a mission to retrieve a set of class cards. A general idea of how they work should be expected of any kaleidostick after that."

I looked at the card again, "so, I'm gonna assume that these depictions are less than accurate? This woman with the bow looks nothing like that corpse, and it had a gun, not a bow."

"The Archer Class contains spirits specialized in ranged attacks," Opal supplied, "bow and arrows, firearms, throwing knives, anything like that, really."

"Okay Opal, and there's at least one more of these things?"

"It's probable that there are at least six more, Princess." Six? "It's rare for heroic spirits to be called unless there's a full set, usually in the standard classes."

"So I've got to fight six more tough opponents?"

"Most likely, yes," Opal said, "though it would be prudent to finish this conversation later."

"Why?"

"With the heroic spirit defeated, there's nothing maintaining this mirror world," Opal answered, "it could collapse at any moment."

"Opal," I said through clenched teeth, "that's something you should have said earlier. How do we get out of here?"

"Leave it to me, Princess." Opal was far too cheery for what just happened, but after a moment we were back in the parking lot of the real Winslow, which was unharmed.

I lifted off into the air. Now that that was over, I was beginning to enjoy the rush of adrenaline from the fight. It'd been scary, but it was fun… I'd apparently beaten some legendary hero or villain… And I'd gotten to level Winslow with no consequences! I couldn't help but smile, despite everything it'd been fun.

"Opal," I said as I began to fly home, "Do me a favor?"

"What is it, Princess?"

"Don't tell my Dad that I got shot."

Opal chuckled, "Alright Princess.


	5. Chapter 4

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

I liked computer class. I didn't have to put up with much bullying here since I didn't share this class with any of the Trio. Also, I was good at it-I missed a week of school and got caught up in just a few days. I mean, it was just basic programming, but I sometimes wondered if this wasn't something I could do with my life? Well, unless I end up deciding to be a cape and join the Protectorate as an adult. That or computers.

Mrs. Knott… She was arguably the best teacher here at Winslow. She um… she never made much effort to defend victims of bullying, but she didn't enable it or pander to the popular crowd like some other teachers did, so it kind of broke even. It's sad that that qualifies as best, but what are you going to do in a shithole like this? I liked her because, if you finished your work early, then she lets you work on your own things, which was an island of relief most days. Having finished programming a simple file sorting program, as was today's assignment, I found myself googling cowboys.

I never quite realized just how many famous figures there were associated with the wild west. Even limiting it to gunslingers left me with too many to count, but eventually, I managed to hit paydirt. Henry Mccarty, alias William H. Bonney, alias Billy The Kid. Famed for his skill with his revolver, a Colt M1877, also known as a "Thunderer." In particular, his speed on the draw was supposedly a legend in and of itself. If that wasn't enough, right there was the famous picture of him, and looking closely I could see just a touch of resemblance between the man in the photograph and the zombie I'd fought last night. I smiled, having found my Archer, and made a note to do more research later. Class ended soon after, and I could feel Opal wriggling around in my hair. I'd need to find a minute to let her out.

*F/KLPT*

Saito Repairs was housed in an old, relatively small, square brick building at the very edge of the docks. Toasters and the like could be seen in the windows, and above the white door was a simple neon sign that said "斎藤 Saito Repairs." I'd asked Mr. Saito what the symbols meant once when I was younger, and he said that it was how his family name was written in Japanese Kanji.

The bells chimed as I walked in through the door and into the shop. The front was a bit small, with mostly just salvaged clocks and microwaves and the like that Mr. Saito had for sale. A short bit away from the door was a counter that separated the front portion from the rest of the shop, filled with shelves upon which stood appliances marked with tags to show who had brought it in for repairs. At the far end, I could see a door, which I'd been told led to a basement workshop where Mr. Saito did the actual repairs.

Mr. Saito came out from around the corner, into my line of sight, and approached the counter. "Welcome to Saito Repairs," he said in a voice only slightly accented with his native Japanese, "We do in house appliance repairs and If it is too troublesome to transport I can come fix it on si-oh." He changed his stance and tone when he saw it was me. "It's just you Taylor."

Mr. Saito was a handsome Japanese man, over five and a half feet tall, in his mid-twenties. He had the figure-especially in the arms and chest, of a man who was an athlete in his younger days and worked quite a bit with his hands ever since. His brown eyes and short dark hair completed the image of a hard-working Asian handyman.

"Yeah, um," I said, hesitating without meaning to. "I just wanted to thank you, for finding me last week, I-"

He cut me off with a wave of his hand. "It was nothing." He smiled. "I was there and you were in trouble." He chuckled. "Really it was that cape that saved you," he said deliberately, "I just hope you don't need to be rescued in the future."

"I don't think I'll have to worry about that," I said with a smile. I placed a hand in my pocket, where Billy's card rested. Opal had said something about making a proper card holster, but until we could get that done I just had to carry them the old fashioned way.

"Hopefully," Mr. Saito said in reply. Then he looked to the door and windows behind me. "Are you here alone?"

I grimaced, knowing where this was going. "Yeah. I just… School let out, I had the time, and I just wanted to come in and thank you."

"And you're welcome," he said, "but you really shouldn't be out alone, especially after what happened." He looked around, then pulled his shop keys from his pants pocket. "Business has been slow recently, I'll close up for a bit and walk you home."

"You don't have to do that," I said a bit hastily. "I know how to get home from here without getting too close to Gang territory. Besides," I lied with a wide grin, "I'll be meeting a friend on the way home and we'll be walking together."

He just stood there, in silence, looking at me, and the door, while I just kept smiling, nervously. After a moment he asked plainly, "are you sure you don't want me to escort you?"

"Yes, I'm sure," I answered quickly.

"Well, if you're sure," Mr. Saito said as he pocketed his keys once more. "I just hope that this friend of yours is someone you can trust with something as important as your life."

I chuckled nervously at that ominous but well-meaning statement, waved, and left, taking the "safe" way home I mentioned. After a short while, Opal wiggled her way out of my hair and floated in front of me.

"Opal," I said to the wand, "What are you doing? Someone could see you?"

"Oh relax, Princess," she said in a tone that implied smiling. "I can't sense anyone nearby. Now," she said with a hint of mischief in her voice, "what was all of that about?"

I rolled my eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Opal"

"Oh don't play dumb with me, Princess." She'd have been grinning like a cat that ate the canary if she had a mouth right now, I just know it. "We both know you're a smart girl.'" Opal cleared her nonexistent throat and accepted a tone, not unlike a young, lovestruck schoolgirl. "Oh, Mr. Saito, I um… um, I just want to thank you for saving my life."

I blinked. "I don't sound like that Opal."

"Yet you don't deny my implications," Opal punctuated her sentence with a giggle. "And what about that hesitation when the nice gentleman offered to walk you home, hmm?"

"Opal..." I said.

"Admit it, Princess." Damn, the mischief dripping from her voice was palpable. "You like Mr. Saito."

"Okay, fine!" I shouted, the blood flowing to my face. "I had a crush on him when I was younger. But I grew out of it," I said with certainty, "and besides, he's like ten years older than I am."

Opal giggled again. "So the Princess likes kind, serious, hard working hero types with rippling muscles?"

"...yes." I feel like you could cook an egg on my face right now.

"Ohohoho! Don't worry Princess," Opal sounded consoling in a mocking way, "your first crush might not have worked out, but we'll find you your knight someday."

"Opal, I do not need your help finding a boy-" Princess, Knight… son of a- "You just wanted to make that joke, didn't you?"

"Hmm, maybe." Opal broke into giggles once again

"I hate you so much right now, Opal."

"Oh, cheer up, Princess," Opal said more seriously than she'd been these past few minutes. "I've located another Card and I think we should go and get it tonight."

"Oh," I asked, interested that we were getting down to business, "and where is it?"

"Why the beach of course."

 ***F/KLPT***

You know, I've lived in Brockton Bay for my entire life but I've never gone to the beach at night. It's not safe, with the gangs and all. Even now I expected to just stumble across a drug deal or pair of killers burying a corpse in the sand, though Opal assured me that there was nobody around.

"So, where's the entrance to the mirror world again?" I asked as I looked out to the dark bay.

"The entrance should be at the edge of the shore, about twenty feet the the right of where you are now." Opal was always precise about these things, it made working with her bearable. I flew to where she'd instructed and landed with her held out before me.

"I'm ready when you are." With my declaration, Opal began the process of shifting us into the Mirror World.

There was a much larger, more noticeable difference between this mirror world and the mirror world that Billy had been in: A small but clearly visible wooden ship, with wood a deep black color and red lines and markings across each side, parallel to the water in the bay.

"I'm going to take a wild guess," I deadpanned, "and say that that's where the Card is."

"Oh most certainly," Opal supplied. "Those markings seem vaguely familiar though."

"You've seen them before?"

"I think, but not on a ship… Oh well," Opal said while bending in what I think was meant to be a dignified shrug. "Onwards, to collect what I suspect to be the Rider Card."

One of these days, I was going to have to ask what the classes were. I flew up, high above the ship and slowly approached. I could make out a dark imposing figure standing near the center of the deck, a knight clad in thick black armor that clearly concealed their features. Their points of distinction were the red markings up and down their body, the dark red cloth I could make out on their arms, and dropping out from their front, the odd… I want to say skirt made of their armor-extra leg protection?-and the long bull-like horns on their helmet. The black knight was unarmed.

"Opal, how do we handle this?"

"Assuming that the ship and lack of weapons means that the spirit is Rider," Opal began, "then it probably but not necessarily has some low degree of magical resistance."

"So," I asked, "I can't blast it?"

"Not necessarily," Opal began, "magic resistance is keyed towards spells specifically, not raw prana. Unless the spirit has an abnormally high resistance or a variation on resistance, you should only have minor difficulty affecting it with a prana cannon."

I was about to ask if there was anything else I needed to know when the black knight looked right at me and-I kid you not-made the "bring it" gesture at me.

So I blasted them from the air, letting loose a moderately sized beam of prana as I swung Opal towards the knight. When the smoke cleared, the knight was unharmed and still staring at me. I got the feeling they were somewhat irritated.

"Okay," I said, "it's either got abnormal magic resistance or its armor is bullshit."

"Language, Princess," Opal chastised offhanded. "Now, maybe you just need a bigger or more concentrated prana canon, or perhaps you need to hit it from a closer range."

"Not point blank, I hope?" I was kind of suspicious, actually, that the knight didn't have weapons. I was half expecting the ship to turn into a giant wooden robot knight and start using me like a hacky sack.

"There's really only the one way to find out," Opal said, "now let's get in there and claim that card! I know you can do it, Princess."

So, with Opal held in a position I could easily swing her from, I landed on the deck of the ship. For a moment the knight remained passive, but then they charged at me at extreme speed-much faster than a knight in plate mail should be able to run. It was all I could do to get a barrier up with a shout of "physical protection!" before the armored fists began flying.

"So," I said to Opal as my boots scraped across the deck from the force of the armored brute striking and pushing at me, "you think it'll go down like Billy did If I push and blast it?"

"It's worth a try, Princess," Opal began, "but a spirit's power increases with the time since they've died." I started pushing forward against the knight. Opal didn't finish her statement, but the message was clear: A medieval knight would be a much stronger opponent than an outlaw from the old west

The knight and I struggled against each other for a few moments as I concentrated on hitting them with a big freaking blast. Rider here was a lot stronger than Archer was and I didn't have the element of surprise this time. After a moment I just dropped the barrier and fired my giant ship exploding prana canon… while standing on a ship… I'm an idiot.

Luckily, the ship didn't explode while I was on it, but I was blindsided by the knight rushing me as soon as the blinding light cleared and punching me in the face. Rendered sightless by the sudden pain and uncomfortably aware of the sensation of blood flowing through my nostrils, I retreated, flying up and back from the ship in order to get room to get my bearings.

"It's quite fortunate that your costume is a prana construct," Opal said as I tried to blink the stars out of my vision, "the blood will just slide right off."

"Leth tahlking, " I said, "mohr fikthing thith." Oh go, I hope my nose heals right.

"Already on it Princess," Opal said in a reassuring tone. "Just relax and lean forward so that the blood won't clot in your nose and block the airflow." I thought you were supposed to lean back so the bleeding would stop faster? Whatever, I just did what she said until the pain went away.

Once I could see clearly and there was no red fluid flowing from my nose, I took stock of my surroundings. I was floating back over the beach, out of the Knight's reach… but the ship was moving towards the shore. From here, I could see that I'd shattered Rider's armor. The last shards fell away before my eyes and… holy shit.

"The knight's a woman." A woman who was wearing far too small a top. Just a strap of dark red cloth really. "I didn't know that there were female knights… at least that actually went out and did knight stuff."

"So it seems," Opal replied as I held her out directly at the freshly unarmored knight. With a bit of concentration and a shout of "magi-lance," a concentrated prana cannon was flying right at the knight's exposed belly.

The Knight proceeded to step to the left and take a… surfing stance? "Prydwen!" I heard her shout, and then the ship started glowing and moving faster.

"Opal," I asked, "is that one of those Noble Phantasm things you were talking about last night?"

"Most likely," my wand replied, "I suggest you run."

However, before I could move, the glowing ship shrank and… turned into a surfboard. What the fuck? I was too taken aback by the surprisingly competent surfing knight to react until she's made it to the shore, somehow jumped from a wave into the air, did some kind of flip, and made to bash at me with the surfboard. I remembered myself just in time to raise Opal and invoke "physical protection," but in the brief moment where her board met my wand, the knight's sickly, evil, yellow eyes met mine and chilled me to the bone.

I flew higher as the knight fell to the sand until I could see the entirety of the beach from my vantage point.

"Opal," I asked, looking down at the weird surfing knight, "if I wanted to just nuke the whole beach with a prana cannon, do you think I could pull it off?"

"No," my wand replied, "even with the infinite prana I can grant you, your body can only hold so much power at a time. Blasting the whole beach with enough power to harm the spirit would require more energy than you're capable of safely storing."

Well, there goes that plan. I looked to the knight and saw her staring back up at me, holding the surfboard like an oversized oblong shield. I took a moment to think, and then… I aimed Opal dead at the knight and fired a small prana canon. The Knight responded by lifting the board-shield to block. Then I fired another one-a much larger one, just slightly askew, so that when the knight raised her shield to block, the blast would instead hit the sand to her left.

The resulting blast exploded on impact, sending Rider flying to the right. I smiled and flew straight down, head first, as fast as I could. Rider was beginning to push herself as I was closing in so I turned in midair and landed with a thunderous crash on her back in an improvised flying double kick.

I heard two sickening crunches and felt a great deal of excruciating pain in my legs causing me to fall off of the downed spirit. At least I hadn't been blinded this time. I could see Rider struggling, trying to pull herself away from me with her arms-her shield abandoned, but she suddenly coughed blood and began to fade away. After a moment all that was left of her was her card.

"Opal," I began, "what just-" I stopped to wince- "what happened?"

"You broke both of your legs and Rider's back by crashing into her feet first," Opal deadpanned, "I understand that you're a magical girl, but you're not that durable," she laughed even as I could feel my bones mending themselves, "so please, don't try to employ such anime-and-tokusatsu-inspired tactics until you've gotten more practice and familiarity with your powers." I made a note to look up what tokusatsu meant.

Okay, Opal had a point. In hindsight that was stupid. Especially since I wasn't trying to break Rider's back, I just wanted a clear shot at her head and standing on her back seemed like the best place to get that from. As soon as I felt like I could stand, I scrambled to my feet, collected the card-depicting and armored figure on a chariot with Rider written at the bottom-and stood. The Opal did her thing and we were back in the real world.

A thought occurred to me as I took off and flew into the sky on my way home. I thought of some books I'd read. "Opal," I said, "Rider shouted 'Prydwen' when she turned her ship into a surfboard-slash-shield. I've read some Arthurian literature, and that's the name of King Arthur's shield… Or sometimes his ship." I guess it was both? "So… does that mean I just fought King Arthur? Was King Arthur a woman? I mean, I didn't get a good look and Rider seemed pretty lean, but I'm pretty sure she was a woman."

"Well,"Opal began, "the markings on the ship were quite similar to markings on Excalibur, now that I think about it."

"You've seen Excalibur?"

"Well, not personally, no," Opal replied, "but my older sisters have, and I have access to that information."

"Okay."

"But I don't know the answers to the rest of your questions," Opal finished. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright," I said. "It's not like I absolutely need to know, so… It'd be a bit weird to use someone's powers without knowing who they are though."

"Oh," Opal explained, "that reminds me. Now that you have a second card, I think I'll start teaching you how to use the Cards' powers soon" Opal laughed to herself. "Maybe tomorrow night."

I smiled, "Sounds like fun."


	6. Chapter 5

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

"I'm ready when you are, Princess."

With Opal's declaration, I took a deep breath and went over the explanation for how this was supposed to work in my head. Magic was surprisingly complicated, as it turns out. I held out Opal and gently placed the Archer card on her head. "Class Card: Archer," I said in a calm monotone, "Include."

Opal and the card both glowed white and she changed shape in my hand. After a moment, I was holding Billy the Kid's ivory handled revolver. It was odd. I'd expected the gun to feel heavy in my hand, but it didn't. The Thunderer felt oddly familiar, as though I'd been using it my entire life.

I turned the gun over in my hands to examine it, but when I started to look inside the barrel the revolver suddenly shouted, "Do not point a gun at your face!" I dropped the gun and stumbled, falling to the basement floor and landing on my ass.

I heard a commotion from upstairs and after a moment Dad scrambled down the stairs. "Is everything alright?" he asked. "I heard shouting and… Taylor," Dad asked, "where did that gun come from?" He pointed to the revolver on the floor.

The revolver in question glowed and then turned back into Opal, the Archer card emerging from her with a comical pop and fluttering slowly to the ground. Opal flew up and bent sheepishly when she faced Dad. "I'm sorry we disturbed you, Mister Hebert," Opal began, "I was just teaching Taylor how to use the class cards, and-"

"And this involves turning into a gun?" Dad sounded incredulous.

"Yes, well..." Opal began weakly. I didn't let her finish.

"The cards have the power of a Heroic Spirit," I began. "I beat the hero a get the card, I can use their powers." I pushed myself up off of the floor. "Opal was teaching me how to use the Class Card to turn her into a hero's weapon and then she startled me."

"Okay," Dad said, "so, you've fought someone with a gun?" Oh crap. "Taylor," Dad asked in a serious 'Dad' tone, "did you get shot?"

I looked to Opal, who looked at me. Then I turned back to Dad. "Does it count if it was just a grazing hit that healed in half a minute?"

Dad stared at me for a moment, and then let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay Taylor," he said, "I've got two things to say. One, from now on, I want you to fill me in on everything you do during these card hunts."

"Okay Dad, that's fair."

"And two," Dad continued, "if you're going to be using a gun, I want you to take a gun safety class."

I blinked and looked to Opal. "That might be a bit… I mean, I only have the gun when Opal is…" I trailed off.

"On the one hand," Opal said with her handle bent to the right, "even base including should grant a small portion of Archer's firearm proficiency. On the other," Opal bent to the left, "you did just point a loaded revolver at your own face. A course on basic firearms safety wouldn't be inappropriate."

I glared at Opal, the traitor. "Okay, fine, I'll take a gun safety class… after I look up the relevant gun laws."

"I can help with that," Dad said with a smile, "but first, tell me about how these card hunts are going so far."

"Oh, well we found Archer in the parking lot at Winslow..."'

 ***F/KLPT***

Gun laws and regulations are weird, and I was kind of frightened by the implications of some of them. But, at least I was able to get into the safety class and do what needed to be done.

It turns out that Miss Militia did an incredibly amusing gun safety PSA involving a Muppet reject full of ketchup and an obviously fake shooting range. The acting was terrible and I could tell by her eyes that Miss Militia clearly wanted to "accidentally" shoot the writer of the script and not the dummy representing her friend from the shooting range. I choked on my drink laughing at it, it was so cheesy.

And that brings me to now. I raised Opal, in the form of Billy the Kid's Thunderer, and gently squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times, four, five, and once more. The ear muffs I was wearing dulled the shots to six low pops, and a moment after the last shot was fired I hit the switch to bring my paper target back over to me.

The gun safety class I'd taken had been taught at a shooting range that was not that far from Winslow. It felt appropriate in my mind that a place where thugs came to shoot things was so close to the school that all of the gangs recruit from. Even after the class had ended I'd made it a habit of coming to the range every so often. Firing a few rounds into a silhouette on a piece of paper was oddly relaxing. Not quite as much as flying was, but still. Besides, as the six holes in Mr. Target's sternum demonstrated, I was a pretty good shot. I don't know how much of that's me and how much of that is skill inherited from The Kid, and I don't know if I could pull the trigger against a real person, but still.

As I holstered Opal and folded up my target to leave, I noticed a bit of movement behind me and saw a blonde girl with a freckled face and green eyes about my age standing behind me when I turned to see what it was.

She gestured to her own ear muffs with a smile and then towards the room between the entrance and the range proper, where it was quieter. I followed the girl to the other room, somewhat hesitantly, and hung my borrowed set of earmuffs up on the hooked wall from whence it came.

"So," I asked the blonde, "what is it that you want?"

"Nothing bad," the girl said reassuringly, "you just stand out a bit around here." That was fair. The blonde was the only other teenage girl who I'd seen since I'd started coming here, too. Most of the people who come here were thugs. I swear, the other day I saw a member of Empire Eighty-Eight, the local neo-nazi gang, one of Skidmark's drug peddling Merchants, and a Bad Boy here at the same time just ignoring each other. I guess they have a truce or something.

'So, yeah," I answered, "I guess I do stand out a bit. So what brings a girl like you to the firing range?"

"Same reason I suspect you're here," she said with a smile, "a young girl like us in a town like this needs a piece if she's gonna be safe."

"Yeah, that's right," I lied. Going with her story was easier than coming up with something else.

"That and it's a good way to blow off steam," she said, still smiling, as she extended a hand to shake. "My name's Lisa, what's yours?"

"Taylor," I said as I took her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"The feeling is mutual," Lisa replied. I'd noticed that she smiled a lot.

I got a better look at her and noticed that while she was dressed down, it was in much nicer clothing that what I wore. "I've never seen you before. I take it you don't go to Winslow?"

"No, I've got my G.E.D." the girl replied.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I applied and tested for it after my parents died," Lisa replied in a manner so matter of fact that I stumbled without walking. "Yeah, sorry," she said, "I guess that's a bit too candid for a first meeting."

"Yeah, it was." I looked down. "You just seem so..." I trailed off.

"A bit upbeat to be talking about my parent's death?" Lisa finished for me. "I guess, but it was a while ago. Mom and Dad loved me and made sure I'd be taken care of in the event of their premature passing. It hurts, but they wouldn't have wanted me to be sad, so…" she finished with a shrug. I nodded in understanding, and she concluded, "Well, it was nice meeting you, I'll let you get going now."

I left the shooting range and my departure was initially uneventful, other than a vaguely familiar boy staring at me for a moment as I walked out the door. After a few moments, though, I heard a feminine laugh from behind me.

"If I'd known we were heading the same way I'd have walked with you," came Lisa's voice.

"It's funny how things like that happen," I said in reply.

"So," the blonde said, "I noticed that you use a revolver."

"Yeah. A Colt M1877 double action," I answered, "just like Billy the Kid used."

"That's interesting," Lisa said. "Are you a history buff?"

I thought about it for a minute. "I guess? My mom was a college professor."

"History?"

"No, English."

"Ahh," Lisa began in understanding. "You grew up in a house full of books, learned to read maybe a little early and have been in the habit ever since, and since you read a lot you pick up a lot of interesting facts."

"Exactly!" I laughed. "You know Lisa, you're pretty good at figuring things out."

The blonde was beside me now, and I got the impression that she was giving a wide smile. "It's a gift. What have you been reading recently."

"I'm kind of between books right now," I answered honestly. Thinking of the research I'd been doing and my work with Opal, I continued, "I'm thinking about looking for stories about great figures from history or mythology at the moment."

Lisa hummed. "I can't say I'm much of a reader, though I do enjoy a good Sherlock Holmes story every now and then."

"Doyle's mysteries are some of the best," I commented. "What's your favorite?"

Lisa gave a low noncommittal grunt. "I don't think I have one I'd call my favorite per se, though I do have a friend who insists that The Hound of Baskervilles is the best. Honestly," Lisa continued, "I don't think she's even read it, but she's a huge dog person and it has hound in the title." I laughed at what I assumed to be a joke. "Speaking of my friends, I have to meet up with them soon so I think this is where we part ways." We'd stopped at the edge of a street and I'd already gravitated towards the crosswalk while she was prepared to turn. "But I did enjoy talking with you and would like to do it again." Lisa reached into her purse and took out a pen and notepad. She scribbled out a quick note and handed it to me. "And this should be how you can contact me, please keep in touch," she said with a smile and went on her way.

I looked at the note, with a phone number, an email address, and a PHO handle written in a neat and tidy script. Did I just make a new friend?

 ***F/KLPT***

I touched down in a large vacant lot that I'd passed while walking with Lisa today. Opal had just happened to notice that a mirror world was present as we went passed and informed me as soon as I got home.

"Center of the lot?" I asked my magic wand.

"Exactly," Opal said in an upbeat yet elegant chirp, "you're really getting the hang of this."

"Thank you," I said before walking over and holding Opal out so that she could do her thing.

The first thing I'd noticed when the shift was done was that there was ice and snow everywhere, covering the ground and encrusting the buildings around the lot. I could feel high winds blowing around me, but oddly enough I didn't feel cold. Either my Princess of the Hooker People of the North outfit was better insulated than it looked or there were some perks to being a magical girl that Opal hadn't told me about yet.

"Ugghh," came a low moan from behind me. Great, this is the second time that a hero has taken me by surprise. I slowly turned around in the hope of being able to get a good look at the spirit before it attacked and gasped at what I saw.

Standing in the street, next to the frozen mirror of an abandoned car, was a woman, one who'd clearly been beautiful once, dressed in a tattered gray dress. She stood on her toes, though the heels of her tattered shoes had broken away long ago. Her graying red hair was a matted and unkempt mess exposing only a single yellow eye, like Rider's, though that was partially obscured by a torn bridal veil. There were these gold or brass… things, each easily the size of an exceptionally large man's fist, where her ears should have been, a huge spike, similar in color, coming from her forehead, and a ball made of the same metal at her hip. All of the metal garments were degraded and discolored. The woman was too thin, emaciated even. And her hands, visible through shredded gloves, were black from wrist to fingertip from frostbite, as were large stretches of the rest of her exposed skin. She was holding a staff or mace of some kind, a steel pole pitted with rust and white with frost with a massive sphere frozen solid and half buried in the snowbank next to it. "Uuggh!" she moaned again, and this time I could hear the pain and anguish in her voice.

"Opal," I said to my wand, "this doesn't feel right."

"Why not?"

"Opal, she's hurt."

"Princess," Opal began, " 'She' isn't a person. She's a mindless, corrupted, and evil copy of someone who already died a long time ago. 'She' is running on pure instincts at best. Besides, we do need that card."

"But-"

"Princess," Opal interrupted, "if helps your conscience, think of it like crushing a bug. Or perhaps like putting down an old and terminally rabid dog. Or cutting your wedding ring out of the turtle that ate it." That last one was a bit… Opal hummed as she thought, while the spirit moaned again. "Oh, or exorcising a restless spirit. Honestly, Princess, they're all applicable metaphors for this situation."

I still didn't like this. The spirit was just standing there, looking at me and occasionally moaning. I took a deep breath to steel my nerves and leveled Opal at her chest. I fired a large but otherwise basic prana canon at the woman in the tattered dress. She didn't move until near the last moment when she raised her hand with surprising agility and caught the canon blast bare handed. The ball of mana that resulted from the catch rapidly shrank until it vanished within her frostbitten palm.

Then she looked right at me, opened her mouth, and screamed. An inhumanly loud wail like anything I'd imagine a ghost or banshee emitting but a thousand times worse. The shout chilled me to the bones in a way that the ice and snow around me could not and then all sense was lost.

The next thing I knew, I was laying at the far end of the vacant lot, a sharp pain in my back from where I'd hit the building at the end, my front feeling as though I'd just been hit by a truck, and the rest of me feeling as though I'd been hit by a live wire.

"Opal," I said, "what the hell just happened?"

"I don't know," Opal said with a mild panic in her voice, "my senses were disrupted when the spirit screamed." I pulled myself up as I began to feel Opal healing my injuries but snapped to full awareness as I noticed the spirit charging at me, it's weapon held high above its head and crackling with lightning. It was all I could do to bring Opal up and invoke "Physical Protection!" before the electrified super-mace would crush or electrocute me.

And then the barrier of magical energy Opal and I created quite literally melted before my eyes and was sucked into the mace. So, I flew straight up at near top speed, and then to the far side of the street bordering the lot. I'd have gone further, but the strange frozen mirror world didn't go that far.

"Okay Opal, just to recap:" I inhaled. "It's deceptively pathetic looking, it hits like a truck, it has lightning powers, and it fucking eats magic!" I exhaled. "How do we beat it?"

"Language Princess," Opal chastised. "Now what happened to it not feeling right to fight the spirit."

"Well, apparently I'm less sympathetic to something when it's kicking my ass!"

"Calm down Princess," Opal said, "and let's try and thick through this. Our basic prana based attacks are ineffective, so try a physical attack."

Okay, that's good advice. I reached for my card holster, planning to shoot the damn thing, but I pulled the Rider card instead of Archer. I was about to put it back and grab the other one when the spirit I was fighting jumped up at me and began swinging it's electrified mace down towards me.

Thinking quickly, I slapped Rider's card onto Opal and with a shout of "Class Card Rider Include!" Opal became the weird shield-surfboard Prydwen. I held the shield up between me and the spirit just in time to block the strike.

"Bll-lass-ted!" Apparently, the spirit could talk after all. The mace, which I could now clearly see was made up of segments, opened up just a bit and the crackling of the electricity reached even greater peaks. It was then that I noticed that I was being pushed down at rapid speeds. "Trr-reee!"

I hit the ground at speed and force great enough to crack the sidewalk and an explosion of lightning hurled me back across the street and into the middle of the vacant lot.

"Princess," Opal began as she shifted back to her true form, the rider card floating from her and landing on my chest. "I would politely request that you not use me as a shield again unless the circumstances are dire." Opal made a sound, not unlike a wince. "It is undignified, and it is painful. Ouch."

I pushed myself out of the snow, again, and saw that the spirit was hunched over, in clear pain, and breathing heavily. I wasn't going to fall for that a second time.

"Okay, physical attack..." I exhaled, I was breathing heavily too. "Shoot it with Archer's gun?"

"Maybe." I didn't like the sound of that.

"What do you mean maybe?"

"What I mean," Opal began, "is that Archer's gun by itself is not a Noble Phantasm, a conceptual weapon, or Mystic Code such as myself."

"And?"

"Well, that means that it's an utterly mundane revolver-any mysteries it may have been used for are entirely from the skill of Billy the Kid." Opal hesitated for a moment before she continued. "And heroic spirits are usually categorically immune to any attack that is not conceptual, supernatural, or preternatural."

I blinked. "So what you're telling me is that I don't have anything that can hurt her?"

"Well, there's a chance that since I'm a mystic code, and one made from True Magic at that," some small part of my brain noted that I could practically hear the capital letters in 'True Magic,' "that the firearm would retain some aspect of my nature as a mystery and harm the spirit-" Who I noted was getting back up- "But I'm not sure."

"So," I said as I picked up Rider's card, slipped it into my card holster, and I prepared to make a run for it, "plan B?"

"I would have preferred to save this lesson for more controlled circumstances," Opal began, "but there is another level to using the class cards. Place Archer's card on the ground and then either step on it, hold it down, or touch my base to it."

I grabbed the western outlaw's card and pressed it to the ground. "Now what?!" The woman in the tattered dress was staring at us with intent in its visible eye.

"Picture yourself being temporarily overwritten by the conceptual nature and legend of Billy the Kid, then say "Class Card Archer Install: Phantasm Summon.' '"

I did what she said as best I could and shouted: "Class Card Archer Install: Phantasm Summon!"

The spirit screamed again, but the sound was cut off as a circle of mana with strange writing and symbols within formed under me and melted the ice and snow around me. Bursts of blue mana erupted from the ground around the circle, and an opaque aura of white and prismatic mana formed around me. I couldn't see what was happening but I felt my outfit changing and knowledge and skill flowing into my brain.

The light show cleared and I found the spirit charging at me and screaming, but I felt oddly calm-in mere moments I'd picked out six weak points on her her body and shot them all.

The spirit collapsed as she found a bullet in each ankle and each knee. She dropped her weapon as her shoulder and elbow were destroyed by two more bullets. She released a primal sounding roar of pain as she tried to push herself up on ruined limbs, while I reloaded and took aim at her chest.

I could feel Archer's skill and power coursing through my body and knew, almost by instinct, how to access the pinnacle of the outlaw's skill at marksmanship and-there! The spirit had managed to push herself up, and I'd noticed that she had some kind of regeneration judging from the condition of her limbs, but now I had a clear shot at her chest and with a cry of "Thunderer!" three gaping chest wounds exploded into existence on her body. The woman let out a last pained scream and faded from existence, leaving only a card behind.

I held the Thunderer to my face and blew the smoke from the barrel, before twirling and holstering the revolver like a character I'd seen in a movie.

"Damn that felt good," I said to no one in particular as I stepped forward to pick up my third card.

"Language, Princess" came Opal's voice from somewhere.

As I walked to the card I took note of how I was dressed. A long-sleeved beige dress shirt, gloves and tight pants of black leather, a black tie, a brown vest with swirling patterns, and wide, folded top cowboy boots adorned my body while the twin tails of a red scarf trailed behind me. A thick white belt and a similar strap on my thigh held my holstered revolver in place at my hip, and I was wearing some kind of hat-a quick examination revealed it to be a black Stetson. I was going to have to show Dad this "install" thing, and maybe take a look at myself in the mirror when I got home.

I plucked the card from the snow. Depicted on the card was a werewolf holding a giant cleaver, with the caption saying "Berserker."

"Three down," I said, "and if you're right Opal then there's four to go."


	7. Chapter 6

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

"Princess," Opal said as I blasted the crap out of my twelfth imaginary meteor of the night, "I know you're upset about what happened this afternoon but this isn't the most healthy way of dealing with it."

The last two weeks had been great. For some reason or another, I'd been getting far fewer threatening e-mails and was being harassed less in the hallways. It had all gotten fucked up, however, because apparently someone had found out I'd been sneaking up to the roof at lunchtime and had been waiting for me with a water balloon full of rancid peanut butter. I stepped up to the roof and I'm up there for less than a minute when I get winged in the back of the head. I stumbled and fell on impact, and the only thing to tell me that I wasn't alone on the roof was the sound of someone running past me and down the stairs. I tried to turn to see who it was, but they were gone.

The foul smelling slime coating my hair had to be the worst thing to happen to me, bullying-wise, since Emma… I fumed for a few minutes, and when Opal, equally covered in disgusting shit, wiggled out of my ruined hair to check on me, I immediately grabbed her, tranced, and flew home.

"You weren't very happy about it either," I countered. Once I'd washed my hair for the third time, she made me step out of the shower and run her a bath. My hair still didn't feel clean.

"No," she replied, "I'm not. But shooting satellites out of the sky isn't the best way to solve problems."

"But-"

"A little catharsis now and then is okay, but it's a terrible long-term solution for stress relief. Especially for a dignified young lady such as yourself," Opal interrupted, "all it does is make you more likely to explode in violence. Now, what is it about this incident that was different from all the others?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean," Opal answered, "is that you have taken threats of violence or death, the theft or destruction of your school work, and in general things that are arguably far worse than what you experienced this morning and suffered them in silence. You normally just go home, write what happened in your journal, and then we go out flying or you go to the firing range and it's like you're fine. This time," Opal continued, "you're not fine. You're still angry. You're aggressive. What's different?"

I mumbled what was different.

"What was that?"

"My hair."

"I'm sorry?"

"My hair! My hair is what's different!" I hadn't meant to shout, but… Opal sort of coiled around my arm in a pseudo-hug. "Look," I said, "you know I have issues with how I look. My hair is the only thing about myself that I like because it's the same as my Mom's was and..."

"I understand, Princess." One of her wings tapped me. "But your hair is fine, you've washed all of the filth out, there's been no permanent damage. When the Traitor and those cretins cut it or bleach it, then you can stay upset."

I took a deep breath. My hair didn't feel clean but… "Okay."

"Now," Opal began, "It's Friday evening. That means you do not have school in the morning, and I know that you're meeting with Lisa tomorrow afternoon." Opal unwrapped from my arm and bent into what I'd come to think of as a smile. "So, why don't we go home, relax, maybe sleep in tomorrow, and then have fun and just don't think about those brutes for a few days?"

"Okay." This would be my third meeting with Lisa. She'd wanted to meet at the Marketplace for some reason. I took one last calming breath and made to head home.

On the way home, however, I noticed something. Another flying figure dressed in white, albeit one flying far lower than I usually soared, was flying through the streets in the dock region at great speed. I could make out that they were chasing someone and… something inside me made me move, and I took off like a shot, flying around and down before landing at the edge of an alley just in time for a Japanese looking man in the Azn Bad Boyz' colors to see me and come to a sudden stop.

The look on the man's face was almost comical, his jaw gaping in surprise and fear. He turned, perhaps intending to run back the way he came, but his pursuer came around the corner and in a flash was right behind him.

The other flying girl in white was Victoria Dallon, alias Glory Girl. She was about my age, maybe a little older, and a junior member of New Wave, a group of heroes that had taken off their masks so that they could be held accountable for their actions. She was an Alexandria package-flight, strength, and invulnerability. She took one look at the ABB thug and then looked past him to me. "If you're trying to copy me," she said after a moment while pointing to her own golden tiara, "then you're doing a good job." I did not expect that. "Seriously, that costume looks great on you." I blushed at the compliment, and then noted that Glory Girl had bad taste in fashion.

Opal wiggled from my hand, earning a wary look from the blonde. "Thank you," she said, "I put a lot of thought into my Master's outfit."

"So," I said hoping to get this back on track, "what's going on here?"

"Two days ago, Susan 'Suzie' Wong, a senior from Arcadia, was abducted off of the streets," Glory Girl explained. "They tried to grab one of her friends too, but the friend got away. This asshole," the hero pointed to the ABB thug, "matches the description the friend gave of the snatcher but he won't tell me where Suzie is."

"Really now?" My stomach sank. The kind of things that the ABB did to girls they abducted…

"Forgive my ignorance," Opal said, "but why would this crude young man be abducting a young girl?"

"Well," Glory Girl said, still cautious of Opal, "Lung, this guy's boss, makes a lot of his money by kidnapping girls, sending them somewhere, where they get tortured and brainwashed until they become compliant little whores for his clubs."

Opal hummed. "Princess," she said, "kill this man."

"Opal," I said as the man looked at us both in fear, "I'm not going to kill him."

"Why not?"

"For one, he's not worth it," I answered quickly. "For two, heroes are supposed to be better than the criminals. For three, he knows where the girl is."

"Exactly," Glory Girl picked up. "And the son of a bitch won't tell me where they're keeping her." She grabbed the young man by the arm and wrenched him close to her. "Maybe you and I could persuade him?"

I facepalmed. "What did I just say about being better than that?"

"Look, Glory Hole, you're terrifying," the captured Asian gangster said to the blonde hero, wincing as she tightened her grip at his crude insult, "but the beanpole scares me more and neither of you-"

"Why are you more afraid of me than her?" I asked in genuine curiosity.

The thug blinked. "You don't remember me?"

"Should I?"

"My friends and I beat the shit out of you for making a scene on the docks!" he shouted. He seemed honestly offended that I didn't recognize him.

"Oh," I answered bluntly. I recognized him now-he was the leader of that group of assholes. "Anyway, where are you keeping the girl?"

"What?" The man was confused, wasn't he? "Don't you care that-"

"Cretin," Opal interrupted, "my master has had far more important things to do than dwell on the actions of some cowardly brute that needs three other brutes to assault an innocent young lady. Personally," Opal continued, "I'd like to crush you like the inelegant roach you are, but it's not my call to make."

I rolled my eyes as the thug's own widened. "Like I was saying," he began, "you two are scary but nothing you can possibly do is worse than what Lung will do if he finds out I talked."

The sudden loud whirring of a dentist drill was the response. From the corner of my eye, saw that Opal had sprouted a cartoonish drill from the top of her… head. "Are you so sure about that?"

I sighed. "We're not torturing him. Now," I said to the asshole, "you know before Lung can kill you for talking, he'd have to get to you. You'd be nice and safe in a jail cell."

The man scoffed. "Do you honestly think-" He was cut off by another whir of the drill. "There's a farm up in the mountains!" he quickly shouted. "It's a big shack, red walls and green roof. I don't know if that's where she's at but it's the only one I know about."

I blinked. Apparently, this guy was all talk. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"And thank you," Glory Girl said to me. "I'm gonna take this guy in and see about organizing a raid. You want in?"

"No," I answered. "I need to get home-getting involved here was kind of an impulse when I saw the chase, I'm not..."

"Let me guess," the blonde picked up, "your parents don't know you're a cape and you need to sneak back home before they realize you're gone?"

"We'll, actually my Dad knows but otherwise..."

"Okay, I understand." Glory Girl hoisted the guy up and shifted so that she was holding him in a fireman's carry. "Well, I'll see you around Princess," she said, and then flew off.

"Wait!" I shouted after her. "That's not my..." she had already disappeared into the night. I sighed. "Opal, I hope you realize that I hate you right now."

 ***F/KLPT***

After meeting Lisa at the boardwalk, she led me to what looked like a fancy boutique.

"So," I asked, "what exactly are we here to do?"

"Oh, you know," she answered, "shopping, trying on clothes, and other girl crap like that."

"Okay, I guess." I didn't quite like the sound of shopping-this place's wares looked a bit pricier than my normal outfits. I suppose I could just say that I didn't like anything present, I suppose, but...

Lisa handed an apparently substantial tip to the clerk who came to greet us and said something about a private changing room. As we were lead to a back room, I noted that there was a distinct lack of baggy pants and longed sleeved sweaters.

"Wait here," Lisa said once we were alone. "I'm gonna go grab some outfits to try on." and with that, I was alone in the changing room. I looked around and the room was basically what I expected-a few changing booths and a mirror.

Opal wiggled out of my hair and came around to the front of my face. "Having fun yet, Princess?"

"Not yet," I answered as I trained my eye on the reflection of the door in the mirror, ready to snatch Opal from the air at the first sign of movement. I wasn't exactly embarrassed of Opal herself, but "this is my friend, the talking magic wand that lives in my hair," was an awkward conversation that I did not want to have with my new friend.

"Well, she has good taste," Opal said. "Perhaps while we're here we can address some of the problems with your wardrobe?"

"There's nothing wrong with my wardrobe," I said, "and besides, I can't afford most of the stuff they have here."

Opal was prevented from replying by the door behind us beginning to move. I quickly snatched her from the air and shoved her into a pocket just in time for Lisa to return. I'd thought she'd have taken longer?

Lisa was carrying several hangers and bits of folded clothing with the grace of someone who's done this several times before. "So, what were you talking about? Something about not being able to afford stuff from here."

I freaked, just a little bit, she'd heard me talking to Opal and "um" was all I could say.

Lisa blinked. "Calm down Taylor, lots of people talk to themselves, it's not a big deal." She sat some of the closes down on a table by the mirror. I hadn't noticed it before. "And don't worry about not being able to afford anything-if there's something you really like, I'll buy it for you."

"Lisa, I can't accept that," I said, looking at the stack of particularly nice looking clothes she'd brought in. "I'm not comfortable accepting such an expensive gift and-" Lisa was giving me puppy eyes. "Lisa, that doesn't work when you're taller than the person you're trying it on." She responded by crouching down to look up at me. "Lisa, that's not gonna work."

"Come on," she said, "You need a bit of variety in your wardrobe."

I blinked, "Why?"

"Well, for one, I'm pretty sure you've worn the same pair of pants every time we've met." I looked down to my pants. I mean, I didn't have that many but the same pair every time? "And you don't really express yourself with your clothes. sweatpants, hoodies, long sleeves, and everything is so baggy. Then it's all so plain. White, black, gray, brown, and beige. Try some color, Taylor, show some skin." I kept looking down. I'd had this conversation with Opal before. "I mean honestly, what are you trying to hide?" I didn't answer.

"Taylor," Lisa said after a moment, "are people picking you?" I didn't answer. "Okay," Lisa continued, "here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna get you some expressive clothes, and then you're going to tell me who these… mean girls are." Lisa slowly brought her hands together until her fingers were tented before her heart, and in a deadly serious tone said: and then, I shall use my contacts within this city's criminal underworld to have them killed."

The massive, foxlike grin she had as she finished talking was... I couldn't help it, I laughed.

Lisa was still smiling when I was finished. "Feel better?"

"A little," I answered.

"Okay, now let's try these things on," she gestured to the clothes she'd gotten.

"Look," I said, "Lisa I'm still not comfortable accepting something like that."

"Taylor," Lisa replied, "when my parents… You know, they set me up so that I'd never have to worry about money. I'm loaded. More money that I'd ever need and I get more monthly-I'm giving most of it to charity and I've still got cash to burn." She smiled. "I can't think of anything better to do with it than occasionally treat my friends."

"Lisa..."

She was back to crouching and giving puppy eyes. "Please?"

"Okay, fine," I said. "One piece of clothing."

"Two full outfits."

"One outfit, Lisa."

"One outfit and on your birthday I'm completely replacing your wardrobe."

"Deal!" Wait, what just happened? The next thing I knew I was in the changing room with a little less than half of the clothes Lisa had picked out. After a brief clothes changing montage, I ended up choosing a blue blouse and a pair of skinny jeans. I wasn't so sure but Lisa insisted that it looked good on me.

"Okay, now I'll just take these rejects back," Lisa said in reference to the clothes we'd decided against, "and then we can pay and leave."

She grabbed the pile of clothes and left, while I returned to the changing booth to switch back to the clothes I came in with.

"That outfit does look good on you," Opal said from her place in the corner.

"If you guys say so," I answered. Once I had changed back, Opal wiggled back into my hair and we waited for Lisa.

After my blonde friend returned, we went to the front of the store, Lisa paid for her own purchases-several full outfits-and mine and we left.


	8. Chapter 7

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

I touched down in an alley about a block away from the Medhall building. From Opal's instructions, I'd landed right at the opening of the mirror world. I looked to the exit and entrance of the alley. It was a nicer neighborhood with more heavily traveled streets. Even late at night, there was a bigger risk of being seen.

After a moment where the only disturbance was the sound of a motorcycle, I took a deep breath and held out Opal. "Okay, do your thing, Opal."

"Adding imaginary axis to the fifth instrumental variable," Opal began and the now familiar dark pit and colored lights opened below me. I just let her do as she was designed to do and let my mind wander, for just a moment, before I'd have to really focus… and I noticed that the motorcycle noises were getting louder.

Just as Opal and I began to shift worlds, a man in blue powered armor riding a high-tech motorcycle tore around the corner and stopped just short of Opal's magic circle. I could make out the man calling for me to "stop" before I found myself in the mirror world.

"Opal," I said, "we have to head back up."

"Why?"

"Because that was Armsmaster!" Armsmaster, the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, had driven right up to me and told me to stop. "It could be something really, really important."

"Well, if it's that important then the master of arms will be there when we get back," Opal replied nonchalantly, "and if not then it's not our concern."

"Opal, that-"

"Besides," Opal interrupted, "we've got a bigger problem to deal with."

I turned to the mouth of the alley and my eyes widened. Standing there was another knight. Like Rider had been, the knight was clad in dark armor, but this one was much more intimidating than she had been. The armor was dark purple and banded, with large imposing pauldrons and a spiked collar, and a helmet that concealed their entire face. The helmet was that of a stereotypical knight, round, with a visor and long ceremonial plumage, and from the visor came a bright, malevolent red glow. At the knight's hand was a large and ornate sword forged from black metal. The knight had been holding the sword by the pommel with the tip of the blade to the ground, but they grabbed the hilt and pointed the blade directly at me.

"I think Saber is challenging us, Princess." Saber, Knight of the Sword and Heroic Spirit of swordsmanship. Considered to be the strongest class of servant, Saber's often have absurdly high levels of magic resistance, ridiculous amounts of raw skill and power, and powerful magic swords. Saber was one of the four cards left, and unless the knight started throwing around spells or pulled a glaive out of his ass, Saber seemed as good a fit as any.

As a side note, I was regretting having Opal explain the classes to me.

I raised Opal so that she was across my left shoulder and focused on something I'd been thinking of ever since Opal popped out that drill to intimidate that one asshole. The Knight, it seemed, was graciously offering me the first move, so why not try it out now? Once there was a concentrated ball of prana roughly the size of a bowling ball floating just beyond Opal's head, I swung her out and shouted "prana-drill!"

The ball of prana erupted into an oscillating blast of magical energy the soared like a comet into Saber and pushed them back into the street…

…And did no apparent damage. Well, at least it didn't blow up in my face, that had to count for something. As the Knight took his great sword into a two handed grip and prepared to charge, I took to the skies. I just barely managed to clear Saber's range.

"He's a lot faster than you'd think he'd be," I said to Opal, "in heavy looking Armor like that."

"He's a Heroic Spirit for a reason, Princess."

I flew over the buildings and streets, to try and get a good idea of how wide an area this mirror world occupied. I was distracted from this mission by Saber running out into the street and picking up a car that had been parked there. Glowing red lines ran through the vehicle and with a mighty twist Saber threw the damn thing at me. I blasted the damned thing down, but it was still surprising.

"This is going to be another hard fight, isn't it Opal?"

"Yes, it is," my wand replied.

"And the way these things work, the next three are going to be even harder, aren't they?"

"Most likely."

I watched the Knight charge towards me and flew higher just in case he could jump as high as Berserker had been able to.

I looked back to the street to find Saber, only to find that he wasn't there. In a panic, I twisted and turned to find where he had gone only to find that he'd somehow gotten on top of a tall building to my left.

"Arondight!" the knight enunciated in a deep, echoing and masculine voice, his sword glowing the same malevolent red as his visor. Then he jumped at me at high speeds. I raised Opel and invoked "physical protection" just in time to block a swing from Saber's blade. "Overload!" Saber shouted and in a flash of red my whole world became pain.

 ***F/KLPT***

I came to face down in a pile of rubble and most of my body ached. "Opal," I called out, "are you there?"

"I'm here Princess," Opal's voice came from somewhere. "Are you alright?"

"I can't feel my legs."

"Don't worry Princess," Opal said in a reassuring tone, "I'm working on that."

"How long was I out for?"

"A few minutes at the most."

"I think we might be screwed, Opal."

"Why do you say that?" my Wand replied.

"Arondight," I answered. "When Saber used his Noble Phantasm, he called out 'Arondight.' That's the magic sword that Sir Lancelot wielded in Arthurian Mythology." I took a sharp breath. "Lancelot was the greatest of The Knights of the Round Table—the best swordsman, the best jouster, the best soldier… I don't think we can beat him."

"Princess, there is no such thing as an invincible being-"

"Alexandria," I interrupted.

"Who?"

"Alexandria is a member of the Triumvirate," I explained. "One of the most powerful heroes on the planet. She's super strong, can fly around the world in minutes, and is completely invincible. Anybody with flight and a brute power is called an Alexandria Package after her."

"Princess," Opal said, "I'm absolutely certain that there is at least one way to hurt this Alexandria. Likewise, there is at least one way to beat Saber. You're a magical girl," she said with absolute certainty, "you can do anything that you can imagine."

That was a nice thought. I'd have smiled to Opal if could see her. The feeling had come back to my legs and I reached into my card holster. "I think I have an idea, Opal." I grabbed a card and, as soon as I had the strength I climbed from the rubble. I let the card I'd grabbed drop to the floor and stepped on it. "Install: Berserker."

"Princess, I don't think that's a good-" I didn't catch the rest of Opal's objection due to the absolute fucking rush that came over me as Berserker's power began coursing through my veins.

"Opal," I said as the transformation finished, "being Berserker feels fucking amazing."

"Language Princess," Opal's voice sounded from the big heavy club-mace-electrical-conduit-thingy I was now carrying. "Be careful, the Berserker class's signature skill degrades your mind. I'm afraid that-"

"Wow," I interrupted. While Opal had been talking I climbed out of the damaged building I'd been blasted into and caught my reflection in the window of another building. "I was worried about fighting in a wedding dress, but I look awesome in it." I struck a pose and admired myself some more. "I mean, I could deal without the horn or the neck spikes-" bronze or brass spikes were coming out of my forehead and from either side of my neck. They kind of tingled and it was a very weird sensation. "Wait a second," I continued, "neck spikes, neck bolts, I'm Frankenstein's Monster. Holy shit, I'm Frankenstein's Monster and I'm about to fight an Evil Sir Lancelot. It sounds like the plot of one of those shitty low budget movies on a sci-fi/horror cabal channel."

"Princess," Opal said, "I would politely request that you calm down and try to think about this rationally and-"

"There he is!" I shouted as I caught sight of Saber. He caught sight of me and charged and I charged him back while twirling Berserker's Bridal Chest like a giant baton… I wondered how I knew what it was called, but as I ran towards Sir Lancelot I decided that it wasn't important.

"Princess!" Opal screamed through a voice distorted by the crackle of lightning, "I'm getting dizzy! This is most unregaahh!" Opal screamed because I met Lancelot head on, as he swung Arondight down at me I dodged to the left in just such a way that the twirling Bridal Chest/Opal landed right at the Dark Knight's crotch heavy-smashy-shocky end first with a hell of a lot of momentum behind it. The shock and/or impact sent the knight flying—and his magic sword flying from his hand.

As Sir Lancelot hit the ground, I began focusing on Berserker's Noble Phantasm. I knew, almost on instinct that using it at full power would almost certainly kill me, but I didn't need it at full power, did I? I took off running towards Saber again, the Bridal Chest carried like a flag and building up a charge. Once I'd cleared half the distance between Saber and my starting point, I leaped high into the air and twisted Opal so as to bring the smashy end down on the prone Knight with a shout of "Blasted Tree!"

After the explosion of lightning which hurt like hell, I fell to my knees. It was going to take some getting used to, that Phantasm. Saber was still twitching on the ground, so after a moment I pulled myself up and just started smacking and beating on him with my wand-turned-club.

"Princess," Opal said between strikes, "this is most-" Smack! "Most undignified. I think he's dead now." Oh hey, she was right. The knight was fading away and… the magic that made up his body was kind of going into the Bridal Chest and making my horn and neck spikes tingle more and the pain from blasting the knight's tree went away a little bit. I kneeled down to pick up the card.

"This was fun," I said. "I just beat the shit out of the greatest of King Arthur's knights. I feel invincible."

"Okay Princess," Opal said like she was talking to a five-year-old, "I think Berserker time is over now. Do you think that?"

I sighed. "Okay Opal," I let the card uninstall and grabbed it as it fell from my chest. Then I slipped Berserker and Saber into my card holster. "That was amazing Opal," I said. "Berserker's power was such a rush, and… I was confident. I was happy, it was… it was like when I flew for the first time. I felt the way I'd felt before, well you know."

"I get it, Princess," she answered, "but you know that deliberately inflicting yourself with mental illness is not a very healthy way for a dignified young lady to deal with her confidence issues, right?"

I sighed again. "I know…Can I at least indulge every once in awhile?"

"We'll see Princess," Opal answered in a soothing tone, "but now I think we should get you home and in bed."

"Okay." As Opal did her thing to bring us out of the mirror world, I thought of how certain I was that nothing could spoil my mood and I kept that thought up until we emerged into the alley and I saw that we were surrounded by Armsmaster and five PRT agents.

 ***F/KLPT***

Five minutes later, I was sitting in the open back of a PRT armored van, my legs dangling off the ledge. "Am I in trouble?" I asked Armsmaster.

"That depends on you," the blue-clad hero replied. This did not fill me with confidence. "Since the beginning of January, we've been getting reports and sightings of a new cape in the city. A new cape 'rescuing' a young girl who was assaulted." I remembered Dad mentioning that Miss Militia had come to the hospital to bring up the possibility that I'd triggered—whatever that means—So… Did he know who I was? "Shortly after, a ship at the Graveyard was obliterated by a cape who was not found at the scene. Since then there have been sightings of a mysterious cape in a white dress flying in the sky and firing white and prismatic beams into the sky, as well as sightings of the same landing upon the ground and odd light shows happening in response-" he gestured back to the alley. "Here, the beach, Winslow High, and a seemingly random vacant lot. Last Friday, Glory Girl surrenders a member of the Azn Bad Boyz with knowledge of the abduction of young girls to the authorities and mentions a Cape in a white dress with a piece of apparently sapient tinker-tech going by the name 'Princess' helped with the capture, shortly after one of the aforementioned incidents. Taking it all together, it formed a pattern that was easy to decipher."

"And that's very clever of you," Opal said, "but why, exactly, do you want to talk to my master?"

Armsmaster frowned at Opal's interruption. "Princess, are you aware that you shot down a disused Russian spy satellite?"

"What!?"

"The remains landed in a tree, which fell over into the home of a judge, who is now hospitalized."

Oh God. "Now, you're not being charged for this but-"

"Why not?" Opal asked.

Armsmaster was silent for a moment, then continued. "Something a paramedic found in the judge's home led to an investigation, the judge in question is as crooked as they come. As the man is himself a criminal, is likely to make a full recovery, and considering the accidental nature of the crime, it's been decided that we not to press charges, however-"

"See Princess," Opal interrupted again, "the man was scum. You're the hero here."

"You're not helping Opal."

"However," Armsmaster continued, "this reckless behavior cannot continue."

"It won't." Oh god, I put a man in the hospital, oh…

"Now," the Hero continued, "what are you even doing here?"

"My master was retrieving a Class Card," Opal answered for me.

"A What?"

"A Class Card," Opal repeated. "A card serving as a vessel for a copy of a legendary soul that allows one to access the spirit's mystical abilities."

"Okay," Armsmaster replied, "That's… Interesting." He, he didn't believe Opal.

"I'm not crazy," I said. "I-I can prove it. You can come with when we get the next one!"

"Princess, that's not a good-"

The Blue-Clad hero chuckled. "Alright, I accept," Armsmaster interrupted. "If the pattern of your previous behavior holds up, there should be one of these 'class cards' on the Rig. Show up there and I'll come along."

"Princess," Opal asked me, "is the Rig a large structure far out into the Bay?"

"Yes."

"We are far more predictable than I'd like," Opal replied

I nodded in agreement. It was hard to tell Armsmaster's expression from just his mouth but I get the feeling that he wasn't expecting that to actually be the case. "Okay then. There was more to talk about, but if we're doing this then we can finish then, you're dismissed." With that, the Hero turned and walked to his bike, climbed aboard, and tore off into the night.

He'd said I was dismissed, so I got up and walked away. None of the agents stopped me, and after I'd walked about a block I took to the air.

"We're going to have a hell of a time explaining this to Dad, aren't we?" I asked.

"Probably," Opal said in reply.


	9. Interlude 2

**Interlude The Second**

Armsmaster had just finished compiling a database of common themes of North-American, Western-European, and Eastern-Asian myths and legends when a chat window blinked on and Dragon's avatar appeared on his monitor. "Good evening," the other Tinker greeted.

"Good evening, Dragon," Armsmaster answered as he began uploading his compiled database into his helmet.

"What are you working on?" Dragon asked.

"I'm installing a database that should help deal with a certain errant young heroine," Armsmaster answered.

"You still haven't tracked her down yet?"

"No, I had an encounter with her earlier this evening," Armsmaster answered. "She was right where my algorithm said she would be."

"Then why this database?" Dragon asked.

"After I informed Princess of the satellite incident," Armsmaster began, "I asked about what exactly she'd been up to and her Tinker-Tech volunteered some information tied up in mystical trappings. The gist of it is that Princess needs cards to work her powers and she's been collecting them from pocket dimensions."

"That seems odd," Dragon replied.

"I think it might be psychosomatic," Armsmaster began, "or perhaps she and her Tinker-Tech don't want to break character. When her tinker-tech claimed that they were looking for cards with the powers of legendary souls, she was quite insistent that she wasn't crazy and invited me to retrieve one as proof."

"So either she thinks she needs these cards," Dragon finished, "or she's trying to play a heroic role. Perhaps a magical girl?"

"Exactly, and in either case playing along with her story makes the conversation run much more smoothly." It'd taken several conversations with Myrddin before Armsmaster had figured that out. "Regardless, she and her device both seem to believe what they say."

"So, is the device sapient," Dragon asked, "as Glory Girl's report implied?"

Armsmaster thought on it. "It's hard to tell," he said, "I'm not exactly the best with people, and our conversation was very brief, but it seemed intelligent enough. It was quick to question why Princess wasn't being charged with a crime after the incident with the satellite and quick to comfort her when I mentioned the judge's corruption."

Dragon was silent for a moment. "...You did tell her about the Simurgh's involvement, right?"

"I did not."

"Why not?"

"Because," Armsmaster answered, "firing massive blasts of energy into the aether is a very reckless thing to do. She's already blown up a ship, Dragon." The database had finished uploading to his helmet, so Armsmaster began making the final adjustments as he spoke. "It might not have been her fault this time, but if she thinks it was then she might not be so reckless in the future."

"I suppose," Dragon said. "So, I take it you're accepting the offer to retrieve this card?"

"I wasn't going to at first," the blue-tinker replied, "I was just humoring her, but her device took it seriously and revealed that my algorithm is more accurate than I'd thought." Armsmaster allowed himself a brief moment of pride. "And by doing so I stumbled into an opportunity."

"By helping with her little mission," Dragon began…

"Not only do I get a chance to see her in action," Armsmaster finished, "but I've got a feeling that she'd be more willing to consider the Wards program if I give her a hand. That way she doesn't just know me as the man yelling at her for being reckless." And getting Princess into the program was a priority. Not exactly a high one, but she was a child with a great deal of destructive potential in a city with gangs always looking for new capes. Not only was she a perfect example of why the Wards program was created, but if she were coerced or manipulated into joining Empire Eighty-Eight or the Merchants… "Besides," Armaster said as he concluded his adjustments, "how hard can it be to find a card?"

 **F/KLPT**

It was only after Princess called the PRT in an attempt to get into contact with him that Armsmaster realized that he'd never actually told her to how to schedule a meeting. Things had been worked out, however, after a few on phone conversations involving the girl and her father, and he was waiting for her on the main platform of the Rig when Princess touched down. He activated his Helmet's recording software, as Princess had agreed for this excursion to be recorded for research purposes.

"Good evening," he greeted, "are you ready?"

"Y-yeah," Princess answered somewhat hesitantly.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah," she answered, "it's just-"

"My Master is just suffering from performance anxiety," the girl's tinker-tech device interrupted. "Honestly, we've done this four times already, I fail to see why your presence makes her so nervous. I mean, just because she used to have a set of undergarments with your emblem-"

"Opal!" Princess shouted, her face flushed red. Behind his helmet, Armsmaster winced. He'd have to edit that out of the official copy of the recording. He didn't quite remember why he'd thought those were a good idea. On the other hand, Princess was clearly a fan, or at least had been, and he might be able to use that. But first, he needed her calm.

"Just relax," he said with a practiced, gentle smile. "Why don't you walk me through what we're about to do?"

"Well, first Opal has to take us into the Mirror World," Princess began.

"The entrance of which is conveniently located just a few feet from where we're standing," the now named Opal supplied. "We won't have to stumble through the interior of this structure, looking for an entrance that might be in a wall or between floors."

"Yeah," Princess continued, "and once we're in we just have to beat the servant and get the card."

Behind his mask, one of Armsmaster's eyebrows raised. "Servant?"

The device in Princess's hand sighed. "Alright, lesson time: There exists outside the boundaries of time and space an intangible record called the Throne of Heroes. Whenever a figure of significant notoriety, the heroes and villains of history, legend, myth, or sometimes literature-King Arthur and Mordred, Perseus and Medusa, Jeanne D'arc, Jack The Ripper, Frankenstein's Monster-dies, they become a Heroic Spirit and are recorded in the Throne of Heroes. Sometimes a being who never actually existed will become so well known that they simply come into existence as a spirit in the Throne. Are you following so far?"

Armsmaster nodded while noting that Princess showed no sign of disbelief in her device's words. Armsmaster himself did not believe in magic, but if the device wished to divulge information on its functionality or its creator's power, he wasn't going to turn it down, even if he had to sort the facts from the mystical trappings later. Still, he made note to research this Throne, just in case.

"Now, Heroic Spirits are powerful, with weapons and abilities that border on the miraculous, but they very rarely leave the Throne. However," the device continued, "copies can be made. These copies are much reduced from the original, and thus are summoned in various Class Vessels. The cards my Master and I have been collecting are one such method, involving a mindless copy, while a servant is a sapient copy. Sometimes something goes wrong, and the card makes a corrupt and mindless Servant who has to be destroyed before you can collect the card. Recap time is over now."

"Actually, if you don't mind I have a few more questions," Armsmaster asked. He hadn't been expecting combat, but it wasn't surprising in hindsight. Princess still seemed a touch embarrassed though, so he kept talking. "What are theses class vessels?"

"Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Berserker, Assassin," Opal replied hastily. "There are seven of them, each one is an archetype, each of them emphasizes different abilities, we've already got four, which means whoever is down there is either Caster, Lancer, or Assassin. Are we done now?"

"They're a bit more general than the names imply," Princess added helpfully. "My archer uses a revolver."

As Princess was neither blushing nor seemed to have her nerves on edge, Armsmaster concluded that his round of questions and conversation with Opal had served its initial purpose-that it had been potentially enlightening about the nature of Princess's powers and technology was a bonus. "I suppose we can get going. You said the entrance was a few feet from here?"

Princess's device flew from her hands and floated a few feet further from the edge from where they were standing.

"It's a bit independent, isn't it?" he asked.

"She," Princess corrected, "and yeah, she's been like that since we met." Met? Armsmaster took note of that. If she hadn't created Opal then… A question for another time. "And I'm sorry," Princess continued, "she's been a bit irritable lately. She's not exactly happy that you're coming with us."

Armsmaster "hmmed" and followed as Princess walked to her device and gripped it.

As the girl held her oversized cartoonish Fairy Princess Wand out, Armsmaster took note of the words Opal said. "Adding imaginary axis to the fifth instrumental variable. Beginning inversion process. Confirming that complex space exists. Central coordinates established. Establishing mirror road with a two-meter radius. Beginning partial inversion of mirror world circuits." Off the top of his head, it sounded like techno-babble, but then again non-tinkers tended to think that his own ramblings were techno-babble. It was all being recorded and would be analyzed later. As a portal and a "magic circle" appeared beneath their feet and the world began to distort, Armsmaster briefly wondered if he could get a copy of Opal's schematics. If he could incorporate pocket dimensional or extra dimensional technology into his halberd… But that was a thought for another time, the entrance into the pocket dimension was complete. Armsmaster noted the crystalline look of the sky in what was otherwise identical to the rig and-wait, no. It was rare, but here and there were a few East Asian characters written on strips of parchment in a few out of the way places.

"The spirit is Japanese," Armsmaster said after a few moments. The software in his helmet was already going through the mythological database for mythological figures associated with paper talismans as he drew his halberd and began scanning his surroundings for any sign of movement. Princess had a card in her hand and was likewise wary.

"Take caution," Opal called out, "such talismans could be an indicator that the servant has claimed this mirror world as a territory, and that's the signature skill of-"

The device was not allowed to finish, and her wielder suddenly turned and shouted "physical protection," summoning a translucent, white and prismatic barrier in the shape of a four-pointed star in order to intercept a sudden blast of fire. "Caster," she said in the direction the blast had come from, and Armsmaster turned to see the enemy.

She was crouched down at the very edge of the Rig above the water, sandaled feet and one clawed hand supporting her weight. Pinkish hair, with pale skin and east-asian features combined with sickly yellow, feral looking eyes blended into a bizarre and unsettling visage. The woman was clad in a blood red kimono and a long, bushy tail came from behind her. At first he assumed it to be part of the outfit, but then he saw the pointed, furry ears on her head. The woman sniffed the air, like a wild canine, and then stared at him with a longing gaze and a wide, vulpine smile.

Armsmaster's blood ran cold for just a moment, and could not react as Princess blasted the foxwoman. As the servant lept to dodge, his software returned with "húli jīng," "gumiho," and "kitsune." Immediately the Chinese and Korean fox-spirits were discarded, and his database began searching for kitsune legends associated with paper talismans.

With speed he had not expected, the kitsune landed on him, knocking him to the ground. She brought her face to his own, far too close, with an amorous look in her demented eyes and tried to lick his cheek, like a dog, though his helmet impaired her. "Mine," the spirit whispered to him. It was then that he regained his bearings and pushed the kitsune from him with great force. The relatively small woman was thrown back a short distance, just in time to be struck by a small blast of Princess's opal-colored energy, which sent the spirit tumbling backwards.

Armsmaster made a note to praise Princess's sense of coordination and timing as he jumped to his feet with speed that only a man with years of practice moving in powered armor could achieve. He assumed an offensive stance with his Halberd and charged the spirit. Just as he swung his weapon down at her, the kitsune's arm shot out like lightning and grabbed the polearm's handle and held firm, preventing him from striking a decisive blow. She then performed a series of kicks and one handed punches that made him quite happy that he'd had the foresight to reinforce his armor in certain locations.

Armsmaster wiggled his left pinky, triggering a mechanism that locked his gauntlets in place, then began stepping backwards and pulling while twisting at the hip in an attempt to break the kitsune's grip on his halberd, but the fox-woman held tight and it became a dangerous waltz away from the edge of the Rig. The deadly dance was interrupted by a tearing sound. The kitsune's ear twitched and she turned her head in the direction of the sound. From his position, Armaster could follow with his eyes to see that Princess had torn a paper talisman from it's placement on one of the walls of the Rig.

In response, the Kitsune released it's hold on the Halberd and gave Armsmaster a shove, sending him back a foot closer to the edge as the spirit drew six more such talisman's from her sleeves and hurled them towards Princess. The girl in white looked to the kitsune in a determined manner and waved her wand before her in a circle, creating six balls of opal-colored energy. As the paper talismans reached the halfway point between the spirit and Princess, they began to burn, and Princess swung her device forward, causing the spheres of energy to erupt outward into beams to meet the talismans. Unfortunately, the talisman's pushed through the beams to reach Princess, triggering them to explode in a massive ball of fire.

In the time it took form Armsmaster to unlock his gauntlets and clench his fist in rage, Princess tumbled out from the explosion and landed in a crouch-the card from her hand slammed on the ground and a "magic circle" forming beneath her. Soon Princess was enveloped in light, which drew the spirit's attention, and Armaster returned to the offensive. Rather than try and engage in melee, he activated a mechanism that recalibrated his Halberd into a device that launched a large pellet at the spirit. She was too distracted by the light show to dodge and the pellet exploded into Armsmaster's personal blend of super concentrated containment foam, trapping the spirit.

Or so Armsmaster thought. No sooner had six gunshots gone off, fired by a Princess who was now dressed as a cowgirl for some reason, that the kitsune erupted from the foam in a burst of flame and an ear piercing scream of primal rage. She took one look at her remaining talismans, each pierced by a bullet, and screamed again. She glared at Princess, and looked to him, and then from her sleeve produced a fan with several paper talismans, which exploded in a flash of light and was replaced with an ornate mirror which floated into the air high above them all.

And then the rig was replaced by a dark field, surrounded by countless Japanese gates, or torii, as the fox-woman summoned yet more paper talismans and began chanting

 _"God who resides in Izumo._

 _Aesthetically certain,_

 _Breath of the soul._

 _Residing in the mountains and watery heavens, Amaterasu._

 _Let this freely become the proof of purification._

 _Thy name is Weighted Stone of Tamamo._

 _Become the sacred treasure, Mirror of Uka!"_

Some kind of energy was being gathered into the mirror. Armsmaster tried to charge the spirit, not knowing what was going to happen but not liking it, but the spirit leaped into the air and grabbed the mirror. Flashes of light appeared around the spirit and massive spheres of fire and ice soon took their place. "Just kid-"

The kitsune was cut off but Princess's shout of "Thunderer!", an exceptionally loud gunshot, and three bullet holes appearing in her chest. Armsmaster turned to Princess, who blew the smoke from her revolver, spun it in her hands, and holstered it. He looked back to the spirit to see it fading away and a card, not unlike the one Princess had held earlier, slowly floating to the ground.

Moments later, the field and Torii were replaced by the image of the Rig, and Princess stepped forward to claim the card. "I guess no one told Caster not to monologue or give people clear shots?" Princess asked with a smile on her face. She glowed for a moment, the card she'd used earlier emerged from her chest-returning her to her normal outfit in the process, and both Caster's card and the card she had used in the fight were slipped into a holster at her hip. Opal, who had apparently become the gun, levitated from Princess's side where she was grasped by her wielder.

Armsmaster took a moment to breathe deeply, and then asked of Princess, "you've fought four of those by yourself?"

"No," Princess replied. "I've got Opal, so I'm never alone."

"And as long as I'm with my master," Opal added, "she can do anything she imagines."

"Anyway," Princess picked back up, "we should get out of here before the mirror world collapses." And with that ominous statement, she took to the air and lazily floated to where they had come in at.

More hastily than he cared to admit, Armsmaster joined her. "For the record, Princess, 'the pocket dimension can collapse' is something you say before you take someone into it.'"

"Sorry," Princess answered sheepishly as her device brought them back up onto the real Rig. "So, um, are we done?"

Armsmaster ignored how his software produced facts about "Tamamo-no-Mae" just a few moments too late to be useful, and filed the information away for later research. "Not quite." The leader of Protectorate ENE affixed a practiced smile. "Have you considered joining the Wards program, Princess?"

He was not expecting Princess to wince. "Yeah, I'm not sure that I'd do well in… yeah."

"Are you sure?" Armsmaster asked, "The Wards get a steady paycheck, a trust fund, and all the resources they need to safely test the limits of their powers." He'd wanted to emphasize safely, but thought better of it. "In your specific case, help collecting your remaining cards can be-"

"Look," Princess said, "this was nice, and fun," fun? "So I'll be honest with you: The absolute last thing I need right now is more teenage drama and more rules to follow-especially in my career as a cape."

"If you're having trouble at school," Armsmaster guessed. An accurate guess, considering what the PRT knew of Princess, but still a guess. "Then the PRT can pull some strings. Get you transferred to a new one, or get you someone to watch your back."

"I mostly do the cape thing for fun anyway," Princess said. Armsmaster suppressed a disapproving grunt at the declaration. "And to help Opal, and so one of the cards doesn't get into the real world."

"Wait, what!"

"It's highly unlikely," Opal answered, "but under certain circumstances, the corrupted Servant can escape the Mirror World. I think Gilgamesh is still stomping around Fuyuki City."

"Okay then," Armsmaster said simply, "but I still think-"

"She said no, Master of Arms," the wand interrupted. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to manipulate her into joining your little club."

Behind his mask, Armsmaster blinked. "We know who you are, Miss Hebert. We've known for far longer than we've been speaking with you and your father. We've known for sure ever since your encounter with Glory Girl and have suspected such ever since the incident in the alleyway." Miss Hebert stepped back in surprise. "You don't even wear a mask." The girl's glare at her wand was amusing. "You're a powerful cape, Princess. The gangs are always on the lookout for those. They will find out about you, if they don't know of you already, and they will try to coerce and manipulate you into joining them, or else eliminate you as a potential threat. It wouldn't be very hard for them to find out your civilian identity to go after your father or your friends or anyone else in order to deal with you." The look on her face told him that what he was doing was working. "If it seems like I'm being manipulative, it's because the last thing I want, the last thing the Protectorate and the PRT want, is for a teenaged girl to be killed or forced into crime on our watch. We can much more easily protect your master, Opal, if she's one of us."

He sighed. "Look, Princess, go home, talk to your father about it, sleep on it, and think about it in the morning. We can't force you to do anything, but please reconsider. You're dismissed."

Princess took off into the air and flew away, a bit shakier than she'd been seen to fly, but steady enough that she was able to make it back to the mainland and vanish from Armsmaster's line of sight easily enough. He hadn't wanted to play that card, but… He hoped she'd reconsider joining the team. He entered the Rig proper and began heading for his workshop. He needed to analyze the recording and edit out the mentions of Armsmaster Brand Underwear and Princess's civilian identity before it could be archived.

 **F/KLPT**

"Fuyuki City was a city in Kyushu," Dragon stated, "it's only major claim to fame is that it was the home of the blade-tinker Muramasa, who died fighting Leviathan at, well, Kyushu. There's no indication that anything even remotely resembling an ancient Babylonian king has ever resided there."

"Thank you, Dragon," Armsmaster replied.

"You're welcome, is there anything else you need?"

"Actually, I've got a theory I'd like your opinion on, but first… Are there any records of Tinker-Tech spontaneously coming into existence during a trigger event?"

'...I'd have to check," Dragon said after a moment, "why?"

"Princess commented about having 'met' Opal, not created and… If our profile on Princess is accurate, then she spent a great deal of time isolated." Armsmaster had gone into lecture mode. "We know for a fact that there's at least one major incident of bullying, and a comment she made about teenaged drama tells me that there's more to it than that. If it was a long time thing, then she fits the profile of the average master trigger. However," he continued, "long-term bullying is also long-term mental stress and a problem that, from my understanding, isn't always easy to solve."

"Master/Tinker, with a Master projection taking the form of the Tinker-Tech?" Dragon asked. "It wouldn't be the most outlandish combination of power types."

"More than that," Armsmaster, "Opal mentioned that Princess could do anything she imagined as long as they were together, so why does she need those cards? And how did they get there in the first place?"

"...My God," Dragon said. "You think that she's creating these cards and spirits herself?"

"Obviously not deliberately," Armsmaster clarified, "but she's clearly powerful and as far as I could tell, the wand was speaking literally." Armsmaster finished editing out the mention of Armsmaster brand underwear. "If she has some kind of mental block that makes her subconsciously believe she needs to earn certain abilities? She made comments that lead me to believe she's got some kind of independent streak or need for control that would be consistent with a master trigger and the theory. What do you think?"

"I think it… Powers are strange. It's certainly plausible, but I'll need to see your footage before I can give you a definitive opinion."

"I'll forward you a copy when the archival edits are complete," Armsmaster stated. "I'm planning to recommend that she be given a Trump rating. Even if I'm wrong about the breadth of her power, she demonstrated the ability to switch between entire power sets."

"She's got a magic theme and dimensional manipulation abilities," Dragon added, "Just like Myrddin. I'm not saying there's a relationship, but-"

"But it's something to keep in mind," Armsmaster finished. He finished his edits in silence, archived the footage, and sent a copy to Dragon. "While you're looking at that," Armsmaster said, "I'll be doing a bit of research about Tamamo-no-Mae."

"You do that," Dragon replied in a tone that Armsmaster couldn't quite place.


	10. Chapter 8

**Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

"Install," I said while holding the Caster Card. The magic circles and lights of the card enveloped me and I was engulfed in prana and soon enough I had become Caster. I was wearing a blue kimono-style robe tied with a black and gold sash, with gold-trimmed black lining visible at the hems. The leg covering part of the robe-is it a skirt? Anyway, it was a bit short, only going down to about mid thigh, but I had blue leggings going up to meet them so it wasn't so bad. The thick sandals would take some getting used to, but they weren't as thick as the pair the corrupted Caster had been wearing so… Yeah, this wasn't so bad.

"Oh, you look amazing Princess!" Opal exclaimed. Opal had become the symmetrical eight-stoned black, blue and golden mirror that Caster had summoned just before I defeated her. The mirror flashed and there was suddenly an image of Opal on the reflective surface. "So cute, yet so formal and professional looking. Could you pose for me," she asked, "like a proper young lady?"

"Maybe later," I answered. "We've got to get this done," I said in reference to the security upgrades that needed to be done. Honestly, I was still… "Besides, something feels weird but I can't quite put my finger on it." Opal laughed but I paid her no mind. I left my room and went down to the basement-Opal had said that what I'd wanted to do, I'd have to start with the foundation.

Once in the basement, I started thinking and trying to feel for Caster's magic. Archer's skill and Noble Phantasms kind of just… came to me, like I'd gained his reflexes and muscle memory, and Berserker is just a rush of power and madness and euphoria so I can't really describe how I use her powers, but Caster...whoa, there it is. "Holy shit!"

"Language, Princess," Opal chided with a sigh.

"Opal, seriously," I said, "Caster can do so much stuff."

"Focus, Princess," Opal began, "remember what it was that you were trying to do. We can take the time to study Caster's magecraft later."

I heard Dad coming down the stairs. "Taylor, are you alright? You really need to stop experimenting down here without-" I got the impression that he was staring at me and turned to look at him.

"What?" I asked

"Are you aware," Dad began slowly, "that you have a long and fluffy tail?"

I looked behind me at said tail, fluffy and foxy as it was. "Well, that explains the weird feeling." The tail had been moving fine on its own but now that I was aware of it… seriously, how the? My ears twitched, and… then I realized that they weren't in the right place. I reached up to the top of my head and felt two pointy, fuzzy fox ears. The mirror Dad had brought down here, the first time I'd transformed, demonstrated that I had, in fact, become a foxgirl. "How was this not the first thing I noticed?"

"Who knows," Opal answered, "now since you're already in front of the mirror..."

"If it's so important I'll pose for you later," I said as I summoned forth some of Caster's paper talismans from my sleeves. "But seriously Opal, business before pleasure."

"Taylor," Dad asked, "what are you doing?"

"Upgrading the security system," I answered as I slapped a talisman down on the center of the floor.

"Is this still about last night?"

"Yes!" I shouted. When I'd gotten home last night and told dad about what Armsmaster said, he'd laughed off the idea of us being attacked in our house. Something about the house being far more secure than it looked, and the villains not being around for so long by being stupid enough to attack such a powerful cape in their home… I'm not that strong, am I? "Look, Dad, I'm scared. Opal told me about how magecraft can protect a place." Dad glared at the wand-turned-mirror. "Caster's witchcraft can do so much… I can't do the best protections without components we don't have and I'm pretty sure that kind of snake is extinct so I can't do the best one regardless, but a few charms and wards… Please?" I looked at him with the most pleading eyes I could manage.

After a moment of meeting my gaze, Dad looked down. "Fine. Just, don't go crazy with it."

I smiled. "Thank you."

With that said, I got back to work, placing a few more talismans on the walls and floors of the basement and then working just a touch of magic via a few principals of Japanese witchcraft and a few choice words that I couldn't quite understand. Witchcraft felt different from what I did with Opal. Now that I'm used to doing magical girl stuff with Opal for a while, I've sort of gotten a feel for what it felt like when mana was flowing through my body and when my "magic circuits" were in use, and then the magic is out there being worked into the shape I want. With Caster's witchcraft, it was like the entire spell was being done in my body and then just sort of poofing out fully finished. It was a weird feeling.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Dad grab something, some old knick-knack that he kept down here, but I was a bit too invested in what I was doing to pay him much mind. "Okay," I said, "that's done." I took a deep breath, working Caster's magic was more tiring than I'd expected to be. "Once… once I catch my breath, I'm going to have to put a few more talismans upstairs. One at each window, one at each door, and… Opal, do you think we'd need to put any on the load bearing walls?"

"Eventually, if we want maximum durability for the house," Opal replied, "but it's not a priority. When we're done placing seals on the windows I can show you how to set up a bounded field around the house tonight and that should be sufficient for now."

Dad seemed oddly uncomfortable for some reason but he didn't say anything or stop me from heading upstairs to secure the doors and windows. A few more talismans here or there and a bit of what I'm pretty sure is muttered Japanese and the house was as secure as I could get it without a bunch of expensive reagents and figuring out which of the house's walls were load bearing.

"Princess," Opal said once we'd placed the last talisman at my bedroom window, "the thought occurs to me that you've probably been seen out and about with your friend Lisa." My eyes widened. "If the risk to your loved ones is as great as you and that Armsmaster fellow think it is, then she might be at risk too."

Oh god. "Opal, we wouldn't be doing this if you'd just let me wear a mask!"

"Princess," Opal said, "please calm down. Magical girls don't wear masks. If I'd known how big a problem identity situations like this where, I may have made an exception, but… Something like this has never happened before. My sisters' wielders were fine going about maskless and, from what I've been told, the closest thing to this was one of their friends asking why Ruby's master was cosplaying at school. Actually, that's quite the amusing story. I'll share it with you later when things are less serious."

"Opal," I growled.

"Sorry. And I'm sorry about… this, but all we can do now is cover up our mistakes and make sure to protect your loved ones as best as we can." The mirror that Opal had become tilted. "Or we could preemptively destroy any and all threats to them with all the might of the Heroes and Gods of Legend. That would solve the problem pretty handily."

"Or people would go after Dad or Lisa because I 'destroyed' one of their friends. Look, let's… I'm sorry I snapped at you… I've got to call Lisa."

I went downstairs and found Dad back at the living room. He was looking at some crystal thing-the knick-knack he'd grabbed? "Dad, I need to to make a call." We didn't have cell phones in the house. Mom had died while texting and driving, and that had led to an unofficial ban on the devices in the house. "Something occurred to… I might have to ward another home."

"The Barnes?" Dad asked.

Oh crap. "N-no. Emma and I had a falling out back before high school started. We haven't really been close ever since. I don't think she's in danger." And I sure as hell wasn't telling her that I was a cape. Especially not one named Princess.

"Oh," Dad said as he put away the nick nack. "I'm sorry to hear that. You two used to be so close." And there's more salt on my barely healing wounds. "Does she know about the-"

"I don't think so," I lied, having caught what he was about to ask. "But I made another friend recently, and we've been seen out and about together, so if somebody finds out about who I am now they'd be more likely to go after her."

"Okay, well, you know where the phone is." As I turned and left I saw Dad briefly look at Opal.

After trying to decide, for a bit, how to hold the phone considering the altered position of my ears, but once I decided that I was overthinking it I just bit the bullet and dialed Lisa. "Hello?"

"Taylor?" Lisa said. "Look, this really isn't a good time."

"Lisa, It's important, and I don't think there's ever going to be a good time for this, and I don't think it's something I can explain over the phone, and-"

"That important?" She half-asked. "Alright, just… come over in about an hour."

"Okay," I said, "I'll um… see you then" I finished awkwardly. We exchanged goodbyes and hung up.

 **F/KLPT**

Lisa lived in one of the nicer apartment complexes in town. It didn't exactly have a gate, but it was in a nice neighborhood and there was a tough looking guy in a chair sitting by the parking lot entrance. There wasn't really much to mention up until I got to Lisa's building and she buzzed me in. The walls were sterile, like the people who owned the building were a bit too thorough in trying to make the place seem like a safe and clean place to live, and I could smell some kind of cleaner so whoever was in charge of that had been through here recently.

When I got to Lisa's door, I knocked and she let me in. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but whatever it was Lisa's apartment was a touch cozier than that. Furniture that looked nice, but was clearly comfortable and meant to be used. There were some nice pictures on the walls- a few paintings, a photo of a boy who looked kind of like Lisa, one of two older people-her parents, maybe? And one of Lisa with two boys-a dark-haired pretty boy and a handsome young black man who my eyes lingered upon.

"I can introduce you to Brian sometime if you'd like," Lisa said while gesturing to the young man in the picture, "now what is it that's so important?"

"Um… I'm not sure that there's a good way to say this, but… I'm...I-"

"Oh dear," came a certain noble lady-type voice from my hair. "Princess," Opal said as she floated out into the open, "the poor girl is going to think you're trying to come out to her-not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, but still. I told you we should have rehearsed."

"-a cape," I finished lamely.

"...so that's who you were talking to in the dressing room," Lisa said in what sounded like mild curiosity. She seemed otherwise unsurprised.

"That's it?" I asked. "Your new friend tells you she's a cape and..." I wasn't disappointed, per se, but still.

"I kind of suspected something was up with you," Lisa explained with a chuckle, "not necessarily this but still. So," she said more seriously, "I'm guessing that you're not just telling me this to be telling me this. I mean, if I'm wrong then I'm flattered you'd trust me enough to reveal your secret identity, but after earlier..."

"Well, since somebody," I glared at Opal, "won't let me wear a mask, I've recently been informed that there's a good chance that people could find out who I am and come after me or the people I care about, so..."

"Don't heroes and villains have rules about going after each other at home," Lisa asked, "or their friends and families?"

"The master of arms doesn't think so," Opal answered.

"Well, there's a little something I can do to keep people from getting you here," I explained, "it's not perfected but it'd give me peace of mind if I did what I could to keep you safe, you know, just in case something was to-."

"OooOOOoooHoo!" Opal suddenly exclaimed.

I turned and found her shuddering. Like, a lot. "Opal, what is it? Are you alright"

"Nothing to be concerned about," she answered quickly. The shuddering seemed to have stopped, so... "Just a sudden case of the willies, it's probably nothing."

I wasn't so sure, but Lisa said, "well, I'm not that concerned about someone getting me here, but if it'll make you feel better… As long as you're not like, putting booby traps in the drywall. I'll never get my deposit back if you do."

"Nothing like that," I said, "I'm magic, so I was just going to put up a few defensive spells."

"...Alright then."

"Opal?"

At my request, Opal deployed her handle and as I grasped her and made to trance she suddenly declared "Compact Full Open. Mirror World Circuits: Maximum Engage!" I had just enough time for my eyes to widen and try desperately to cover my chest and groin before I found myself nude in a white field of multicolored stars with Opal's mana flowing over my body in various ways and my hooker-princess dress popping into existence one bit at a time in such a way as to force me to uncover myself. Half a minute later, the change finished with Opal's declaration of "Transformation Complete: Kaleid Liner Prisma Princess!"

"Opal, what the hell!" I shouted with a glare at the stick in my hand.

"Proper magical girl etiquette," she replied, "dictates that when you transform for a friend you've just revealed yourself to, you use the full transformation."

"You didn't have to cover up," Lisa interjected, "you were glowing brightly enough that there was no way anyone could make out any details."

And then I started throttling Opal for not telling me that back when we did this the first time, to Lisa's laughter. "So," she said between guffaws, "you're a magical girl? Do you have rules you have to follow or are you one of the 'anything you can imagine within reason' types?"

"Little of both," I answered without taking attention from Opal. "By default, I'm mostly making energy constructs and blasting the crap out of stuff, but I've got these cards with specific abilities and Opal says I can do anything I imagine."

"Well, if you ever find yourself in need of ideas, I got the first two seasons of _Bushido Magical Musashi_ in a collection of Aleph Import DVDs I got from a guy a few months ago." Opal laughed as Lisa said the name of what I assumed to be a magical girl anime. "I have a question though: that ship that got blown up at the beginning of January… That was you, wasn't it?"

My eye twitched. "That was an accident and nobody got hurt."

"Sorry, so what is it you want to do?"

I stopped throttling Opal and started looking through my card holster. Saber, Rider, Archer-there was Caster. I deposited the other three cards back to their resting place, stepped into a place in Lisa's living room with plenty of space, and held the Card outward. If Opal was so insistent on going the theatrical route... "Class Card Caster Install: Phantasm Summon!" I was engulfed by magic circles and mana and for the second time today I'd become Caster.

I'm not sure what Lisa had been expecting, but it apparently wasn't for me to turn into a foxgirl in Japanese formal wear. She looked so surprised and immediately rushed over to me and gave me a once-over. I started to get a bit uncomfortable around her third walk around. "Okay, Lisa, this is getting-" She pulled my tail. She just grabbed and yanked it and I gave off this high pitched squeaky "yip!" sound, completely against my will.

"It's real," Lisa said simply, as though in some kind of a trance.

"No shit Sherlock!" I quickly turned and wrapped the tail around myself before rubbing where she'd grabbed it. That hurt. "Don't go grabbing parts of other people's body."

"I'm sorry," she said, "it's just… it was so fluffy."

Opal laughed, but I paid her no mind. "It's fine, just don't do it again. Now," I summoned some of Caster's talismans, "Caster specializes in shapeshifting-which I haven't tried yet-and eastern style witchcraft. I can't do as much to your apartment as I did back home, but a few of these in key places and a few spells should keep you safe, at least while you're at home. I'll have to come back every so often to make sure they're still working, but..."

"Do I have to move the furniture or any pictures?" Lisa asked. I took a quick look around the apartment, and there wasn't anything in a particularly important location so I shook my head no.

I placed a Talisman on the living room floor-slid easily under a coffee table and out of sight, a few on each window, and one on the door. Then I started chanting Japanese words I still couldn't quite understand. More of them than I'd done at home-without a foundation, I had to be extra thorough to make sure the spells would stick. Lisa was paying close attention. She seemed so fascinated by the whole process.

"And done," I said and then took a deep breath, "you can cover them up if you have to, but be sure not to take them down or it'll break the spell."

"Okay," Lisa answered, "now what was it you were saying while you were chanting?"

"I have no idea," I answered, "I know what to do but I don't know why I have to do it that way or why it works, and the only thing I know of Japanese is that 'domo arigato' means 'thank you very much.' " And that was only because one of Dad's friends really likes Styx.

Lisa hummed. "Well, thank you for taking the time to make sure I was safe," she said, "I know a couple of people, who, if they were capes, would have probably left their civvie friends high and dry than trust them with a secret like this."

"Are you planning to blab?"

"Of course not," Lisa answered then crossed her heart, "promise. Now, um, I'd be careful using that… Card if you're planning to fight the Bad Boyz. I can't imagine Lung would take kindly to a white girl dressing like a fox spirit and casting 'spells' in Japanese she doesn't even understand."

"Yeah, that's probably something to keep in mind," I agreed, "besides, I'm not stupid enough to fight someone like Lung… Though if I did and somehow managed to take him down without dying, that'd give me mucho cred."

Lisa did not respond. "Princess," Opal interrupted, "never say that again. Ever."

"Yeah," Lisa added, "just... Don't." I grinned sheepishly. "So," she continued, "I was serious about that offer to introduce you to Brian."

"Can I think about it and get back to you later?"

 **F/KLPT**

I'd spent the rest of the afternoon resting and relaxing after I'd finished with Lisa. Working Caster's witchcraft was a lot more exhausting than working magic with Opal. And something about Caster felt weird, even after I got used to the tail.

I was feeling fine by the evening though, and setting up that bounded field thing that Opal talked about hadn't been that hard, so when she mentioned that she'd sensed a Class Card I'd told dad about it and set out to get it. There were only two left, and the sooner we got this done the sooner we'd know if the Cards had something to do with the lack of mana on Earth Bet.

The Card was a bit outside of Brockton Bay proper, up in the mountains. I think it was technically in city limits, but it was like an entire other small city from the Bay, in addition to, you know, the mountains and wilderness. As I flew out to get it, I found myself being joined by another flyer.

"Hey, Princess!" the other airborne cape shouted, and I turned to see Glory Girl coming towards me.

"Um, hey," I replied lamely.

"You'll be happy to know that Ms. Wong and about six other girls were rescued the other night," she said, "so thanks again for your help with that thug."

"You're welcome," I said.

"So what are you doing," she said, "got a tip on something?"

"No, I'm just-"

"We're collecting a Class Card," Opal interrupted, "a very delicate errand that needs our complete attention so we cannot afford a distraction right now," Opal said, "so I'm sorry but we can't play with you tonight."

"Opal, you're being rude." Did she have to be so dismissive?

"Okay, I'm gonna ignore that: What's a Class Card?"

"Well, um… Imagine that there's some record of every hero and villain ever-like, going back to the very earliest recorded history." I started to explain, "and that record can be used to copy their powers. These cards can be used to use those power copies, but if you leave them alone they'll make a corrupted version of the hero or villain, and they can sometimes get out. Opal knows how to get to them, and even if they're not causing problems now it's not something we want to leave lying around."

"So… You're going to go fight some super strong ancient superhero so you can get their powers before some bad guy does or they get out and make a mess of things," Glory Girl sounded a bit incredulous. "Can I get in on that? It sounds like fun."

"Oh, Okay." That was-

"No," Opal interrupted.

"Opal, be nice. Things went well when Armsmaster helped us," I said, "so I don't see why she can't help."

"The master of arms is a trained professional and was already located where the Card was," Opal answered, "This… Girl whose name I didn't catch isn't much older than you."

"But Glory Girl is loads more experienced than I am." I countered, "and she can bench press a cement mixer. She'd be really nice to have around if this Card is another tough one."

"I don't want to have to explain all of this again,"

"Beat up guy, get card" Glory Girl interjected, "What's there to explain? Also, could you not talk about me like I'm not here?"

"Sorry," I gave a sheepish smile.

"Fine," Opal conceded, and I led Glory Girl to a wooded area, well outside the town, at the base of the mountains.

"Now, this is going to get a little bit… trippy," I said as I held Opal out and she began opening the way into the Mirror World. Glory Girl said nothing but looked down at the void and magic circles Opal created beneath us. She sort of stumbled a bit at the shift from the real world into the Mirror World. "Now," I said, "a lot of the cards aren't readily apparent when we first come in so keep your eyes open," I said. I held Opal out, ready to fire a prana cannon as soon as it was necessary as I began turning and looking around.

"So what kind of fight are we expecting?" Glory Girl asked, "will they like drop the card if you beat them hard enough or is this a 'to the death, they're not really people' kind of-"

I cut Glory Girl off when a dark figure suddenly manifested in front of me and, startled, I blasted the shit out of it. I couldn't even make out anything other than "dressed in dark clothes with a hood" before the servant faded away, leaving a card that said "Assassin" floating right there for me to grab it.

"Well," Glory Girl said, "that was anticlimactic."

"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry if I overhyped this," I said, "it's normally a lot more involved than that. They usually put up a lot more of a fight."

"Assassin is one of the weakest classes, Princess" Opal added.

"Eh, don't worry about it," Glory Girl said, "At least I got to see something-wha-urgk!"

I whirled in a panic and saw that a blood-soaked woman had driven a spear into Glory Girl's chest. As she pulled the spear back, Glory Girl hit the ground. Then the savage figure turned to me.


	11. Chapter 9

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

I whirled in a panic and saw that a blood-soaked woman had driven a spear into Glory Girl's chest. As she pulled the spear back, Glory Girl hit the ground. Then the savage figure turned to me. As I got a clearer look, I noticed that she was nude or close to it, her modesty preserved by thick coatings of fresh blood and some kind of blue warpaint. Despite the terror that I was feeling I couldn't help but notice that her figure was more than enough to leave even a model feeling inadequate, and her long hair was a wild mess matted with blood. She looked at me with mad eyes-red, with black sclera-and I had to look away.

Glory Girl! She was supposed to be invincible, right? So, of course she's okay, Lancer must have just knocked the wind out of her, that's all? I looked at the blond girl on the ground and… that was a lot of blood. It was seeping through her costume and-there, her chest was rising, albeit unsteadily, and she'd moved her hand over the wound. She was alive, for now, so if I could just beat Lancer in time then… Opal says I can do anything, so I could heal Glory Girl and everything would be fine and-

"Princess," Opal interrupted my train of thought, "we have to get out of here-now!"

"Why?" I asked. "We can't just leave Glory Girl here to die!"

"Princess, look at that spear." I obliged. The spear was long and solid red-made of some material I couldn't make out-and the sharp head glistened with Glory Girl's blood. "That spear is Gae Bolg, a demonic spear capable of being thrown so that it pierces most defenses and with enough power to destroy an army, or else it can be thrust in such a way as to always pierce the heart. It's a miracle," Opal continued, "that this Glory Girl isn't already dead. It may sound cold of me, but our best bet is to leave and come back later with reinforcements."

Lancer continued to stare me down. "Opal, I can't just-" Lancer suddenly burst at me and I had to fly away. "Who is this? How do you know what that spear is?"

"My older sisters were sent on a mission to retrieve class cards, just as we are doing now," Opal explained, "and the Lancer card of that set was Cu Chulainn, the owner of that spear. This, this is not Cu Chulainn, so it has to be Scathach, Cu Chulainn's mentor in combat and magecraft and creator of the demonic spear," Opal finished.

It was then that I crashed face first into some kind of invisible barrier right in the middle of the sky. After backing up just a bit and shaking the stars from my vision, I saw that the sky had been filled with runes.

"Opal?"

"We're stuck here," Opal answered. "The Servant drew runes on the sky-an apparent mix of traditions-and now the only way out is if we kill her."

I nodded and turned back to see that Lancer had made some kind of barrier around Glory Girl. "Is that bitch holding her hostage!?"

"It seems like it," Opal answered. She didn't comment on my language.

Lancer started carving runes in the ground with her spear. Four of them in what I think were the four cardinal directions. She then looked up to me, and some word written in runes appeared before her and then there was a sudden blast of fire that I had to block with physical protection.

I couldn't blast Lancer from up here, not while she was next to Glory Girl, but… I landed as far from Lancer as I could and fired a small beam in her general direction and-damn she was fast. Lancer danced around the beam and was on nearly on me, charging with such speed that I had to take to the air once more and quickly strafe to the right. Still, that tactic had done what I'd meant it to do, Lancer was away from Glory Girl and I could blast the crap out of the bitch. A quick spin of Opal and a swing sent six powerful beams of prana at Lancer. I followed that up with a "scatter shot!"

There was a lot of smoke after that, but my hopes were dashed when Lancer erupted from the cloud and into the sky. As the warrior woman began to descend, six more spears appeared around her and flew at me.

On near instinct, I summoned more shields, a small one for each spear. The long implements of pointy death managed to shatter the barriers, but they were knocked off course. I had to leap back to avoid a spear thrust from Lancer as she landed. I wasn't sure if it was a heart-piercing one or not, but I was still alive so I'm betting "no."

Lancer was fast, had powerful ranged attacks and magic, and was deadly in melee range. I'd need speed and precision at long range to beat her-something I didn't have enough of as a magical girl. I still had some range between her and I, so I grabbed through my card holster until I found Archer. I flew further back to give myself more space before holding the card out and transforming with a declaration of "Install!"

When the magic circles and eruptions of mana had faded, I was once more decked out in the garb of Billy the Kid. A quick dodge roll allowed me to avoid a thrust from Lancer's spear. I quickly backtracked away from her while firing shots from Billy's revolver in her general direction. I would have said at her, but she'd managed to dodge or block all six shots as she pursued me. I reloaded and prepared to unleash the might of Billy's Noble Phantasm, but in the time I'd managed to say "Thund" she'd caught up to me and sent me flying through the air with a blow from the shaft of her spear. I landed in a sprawl, and the Archer Card was ejected from my body. By the time I'd grabbed it and sat up, Lancer had summoned more runes drawn upon the air, and there were a lot of them. Electricity began to crack between them and I could smell ozone. In a rush, I grabbed through my card holster until I'd grabbed Berserker and installed. This time my transformation ended just in time for me to raise the Bridal Chest and absorb a massive blast of lightning.

"Oh fuck yes!" I shouted as every last watt and volt of the sweet magical lightning coursed through my veins. Within seconds every bit of pain from Lancer's attack and the exhaustion I hadn't even realized was there had vanished. Then I screamed-the same primal wail that Berserker had used against me-and then charged into the warrior woman with a shout and a swing of my oversized electrical mace. I'd managed to knock Lancer down, so I brought the Bridal Chest down for a harsh smash. But when I tried to crush her again, Lancer flipped from the ground and kicked her heel into my belly. As the wind was knocked from me, Lancer grabbed my arm and threw me over her back into the sky-barrier she'd created. I bounced from the runic ceiling straight into the ground.

Berserker popped out of me as I groaned from the impact. Okay, melee combat didn't work and guns didn't work. I dug through my card holster once more until I found Caster and installed. Lancer was staring me down when the transformation was complete. It seemed to me that she was biding her time.

"Opal," I asked my wand turned mirror, "what happened to the servants in the mirror world being mindless? Lancer here is fighting pretty smart."

"Scathach was an immortal warrior and magus who achieved near divine status and was known for slaying deities," Opal answered, "it's not only possible but probable that her combat instincts are far greater than any of the other servants we've faced."

I nodded. It might be due to a potential concussion, but that made perfect sense. I looked over to the barrier where Glory Girl was being kept, but I couldn't make anything out past the glowing runes that surrounded her.

Lancer seemed to be waiting for me to make the next move. If she was just going to stand there, then… I moved away from Lancer, just in case. I wouldn't make the same mistake Caster did.

I summoned caster's talismans, many of them, and sent them out to do their work. "Gods in Izumo," I said with a careful eye on Lancer, "this is the sign of freedom and purification." This was different from what Caster has said in the Rig mirror world, but it felt right as I said it. "The sacred treasure, the Mirror of Uka." The area around us was beginning to change into the field surrounded by shrine gates that Caster had summoned. "Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu on the Weight Stone under the Sunlit Watery Heaven..." There, Lancer was charging at me. Opal as the mirror was floating above me-I jumped and grabbed her at the last minutes to avoid Lancer's strike, "Just kidding!" I don't know why that was the last line of the incantation, but the second I grabbed Opal there was an explosion of light and I could feel the power of Caster's Noble Phantasm flow through me.

I landed with a flip a few yards from Lancer. Caster's mega-spell was a no, Glory Girl would be in the area. I wasn't sure if it would penetrate the barrier she was in or if would even hurt her, but she was already wounded and that's not supposed to happen. But, I could still work Caster's other spells.

I tossed a talisman at Lancer, who was once more charging towards me, and it connected and exploded in a blast of fire. Which Lancer just ran through. I'd thought that was too easy.

I summoned six more talismans and worked a bit of magic so that when I threw them they'd form a circle around Lancer, and with a spell, they exploded into cold and created a shell of Ice that well should have trapped Lancer if she hadn't jumped out of the spell's area. Once more she summoned a storm of spears while in mid-air and launched them at me, but she was much closer this time. I didn't have time to move or block them and I soon found myself pinned to the ground by six demonic spears piercing my kimono.

The rush of power I'd gotten from Caster's Noble Phantasm faded and the card was ejected from my body-which, thankfully, freed me from the spears holding me to the ground. I grabbed for Opal, and as Lancer slowly approached I pulled my remaining three cards. Rider? No, a surfboard isn't that useful on land. Saber? I'd tried melee combat, it'd ended poorly. That left Assassin. I didn't know what Assassin could do, but I knew that the Assassin class had powers of magical stealth. Lancer was closing in for the killing blow, but she was taking her sweet time doing it. If I timed things just right, I could get an opening to escape and use Assassin's power to buy myself some time.

Lancer was just a few feet away from me and was pulling back her spear for the killing blow when I swung Opal towards her and blasted her with everything I had. I didn't wait for any sign of Lancer, as soon as the blast was fired I flew as fast and as far as I could, landed at the edge of the Mirror World and immediately Installed Assassin. I don't know if it helped or not, but I tried to will the transformation to end as quickly as possible and once I'd fully transformed I immediately tried to reach for Assassin's skills in the hopes of drawing on his Presence Concealment. When I was sure I'd gotten it I turned back to look at Lancer.

Lancer was scanning the area. Twice she looked right at me only to look away seconds later. She then walked away to search for me in other parts of the Mirror World. I let out a sigh of relief and set to figuring out just what the hell Assassin could do. Okay, Assassin's outfit was some kind of black leather armor-though I'm certain that his belly wasn't as exposed as mine was. He was a modern Hero, that much was certain, by the guns, knives, and bullets strapped to my waist and hidden elsewhere on my person. My hair felt compressed all of a sudden, and a quick check revealed that I was wearing a hood. There was some kind of shroud at my shoulders and another at my hips, for some reason, and I was wearing knee-high metal boots. The last thing I noticed was some kind of crest on my left glove. Two guns, one was some kind of high caliber automatic pistol, powerful but otherwise nothing special except in the hands of a Servant. The same was the case with the holster full of knives, but the other gun... It wasn't a Noble Phantasm but it'd certainly pack a punch, especially if I used the other ammunition, but Assassin wasn't as good with a pistol as Archer was and Lancer had already demonstrated that she could avoid bullets. The combat knife… Yeah, that'd work. I just had to sneak up on Lancer stab her with the Phantasm and...Oh shit.

Lancer was standing right next to the barrier she'd trapped Glory Girl in and was holding her spear pointed towards the trapped heroine. The threat was clear, she'd finish Glory Girl off if I didn't show myself. I wasn't sure what… Wait. I could tell now that Assassin was a Magus. That crest on my glove was some kind of spell library. I'd have to look into that later, but one of them, one looked like just what I-never mind. Assassin had two Noble Phantasms, and the second was the steroid abusing older brother of that spell I'd just found.

So I dashed out into the open and dropped presence concealment completely. "Hey, bitch!" I shouted to the warrior woman, "if you want me, well here I am!"

Lancer turned to face me, and with a look of determination she shifted the grip on her spear and pulled it back for a toss.

"Princess," Opal-now one of the guns on my person-called in a panic, "what are you doing."

"Trust me," I said as I eyed the conical, piercing red aura that was forming over the demonic spear in Lancer's hand. "Can't you tell what Assassin's Noble Phantasms are?"

I could hear Lancer make some kind of long grunt or low moan as power built up. She finally made to throw the damn spear. "Gae Bolg Al-"

"Chronos Rose!" I shouted, and the world distorted as time ceased to move forward. I ran forward until I was right next to Lancer and then I dragged the knife that was Assassin's other Phantasm across her throat. I grabbed Assassin's gun, the heavy duty one, and loaded it with one of the normal bullets-the special ones would be overkill, and then I started alternatively stabbing or slashing the warrior woman or else pistol whipping her in her arms, chest, and torso. Over and over and over again I struck the corrupted servant as hard and as fast as I could until my time stop ran out.

Time started moving again. Lancer let out a loud but raspy gasp as all of her new injuries caught up to her in an instant. Her spear fell to the ground, it's aura gone, and she collapsed to her knees. I placed the barrel of the Thompson Contender to her forehead. "Lights out," I said as I pulled the trigger. A loud shot and Lancer fell to the ground and faded away. It was only then that I realized that if she hadn't have faded so fast, I'd probably have had to deal with the brain splatter and I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle that.

The runes in the sky faded with Lancer, but the barrier around Glory Girl didn't. A quick slash with "Phantasm Punishment" severed the spell and gave me access to the injured heroine. I ejected the Assassin Card, placed all seven cards back in my holster, and leaned in to check on her.

She was still alive, by the way that she was clutching her chest wound, but she'd lost a lot of blood-I could even see some at her mouth, which I think meant her lung had gotten pierced.

"Glory Girl," I asked, "are you with me? Can you hear me? Nod if you can."

"I can talk," she rasped, "hurts like hell though."

"Then don't say anything!" God damn, I said to nod for a reason. "Okay, I think I can like, share my healing factor with you so just sit back and try not to die on me. Opal?"

"On it Princess." With her confirmation, I held her out of Glory Girl and tried to imagine the injury vanishing and Glory Girl being healthy and whole and-

"That's not good."

"Opal," I asked, "what does that mean?"

"Glory Girl here seems to have an abnormally high magic resistance," Opal explained, "high enough that I can't heal her-at least, not before the Mirror World collapses."

"So..."

"I think I can stop the bleeding," Opal said, "and get her stable enough to make the jump back to the Real World, but she's going to need immediate medical attention from either a healer more powerful than I or a preternaturally skilled surgeon as soon as possible or she will die. As is it's a miracle that her punctured heart isn't splattered on the ground, being hit with Gae Bolg like that."

"Get me home," Glory said. She was starting to sound not all there. Like she was about to pass out or lose touch with reality. "Ames can fix me."

Ames? Amy Dallon, or Panacea. Glory Girl's sister and one of the most powerful healers in the country as far as I knew. "Opal, just get her in the best shape you can so we can get out of here."

Opal did her thing, and I thought about Glory Girl's bleeding at least stopping. Opal declared that she was stable just as the Mirror World started falling apart. We got out in just the nick of time and I sort of carried Glory Girl as I flew back into the city proper.

 **F/KLPT**

By the time we'd actually gotten back into city limits, I'd realized that I didn't actually know where the Dallons lived and had to prompt Glory Girl... several times, in order to get a street address.

I landed just in front of their door, the lights were out. How late was it? I'd lost track of time. I gently sat Glory Girl down and started pounding on the door. I'll admit I was a bit panicked, Glory Girl was slumping where I'd sat her down. I noticed lights flickering on and heard someone coming towards the door so I stopped knocking.

The door swung open and an irate older woman who bared a resemblance to Glory Girl was glaring at me. "Do you have any idea what time..." Then the woman, Brandish, noticed her daughter slumped on the porch in a bloodstained costume and immediately pushed me aside to grab her daughter and pull her into the house. "Mark! Amy! Get down here, family emergency!" After shouting that she turned back to me. "You have five minutes to get in here and explain what happened to my child."

I stepped in just in time to see a brown haired girl about my age come running down the stairs. "What's going o-Vicky!" The girl, Panacea, rushed over to her sister and placed a hand on her. "There's a hole in your chest! How is there a hole in your chest!?"

"I got stabbed with a gay bulge," Glory Girl said in a delirious tone as a grown man-Mark Dallon aka Flashbang-finally joined the rest of us. Brandish gave me the strangest look.

"Okay," Panacea said in a panic, "just sit still and I'll have you all fixed up in no time."

"Leave a scar," the injured heroine said, "it'll be... It'll be wicked." I couldn't tell from here whether the healer obliged her sister's request, but after a moment the brunette hugged the blonde and started muttering about how she was going to be okay.

"Okay," Brandish said to me, "explain how you came to my doorstep with my invincible daughter bleeding out from a chest wound?"

"There are these things," I said, "called Class Cards. The gist of it is that they're hidden in places, and they've got power. If they stay in a hidden place long enough, then they'll manifest a projection. I know how to get to them, and you really don't want to leave them laying around in case a bad person finds them, or in case the projection gets out."

"And I saw her flying out to get one," Glory Girl said, sounding better, "and she explained all of that and I asked if I could help because it sounded fun."

"And I'd already been joined by Armsmaster once, so I figured it would be okay." I pulled out the cards and selected Assassin and Lancer. "But when we got there, there were two of them."

"Princess blew one of them up, then some naked chick covered in blood showed up out of nowhere and stabbed me with a gay bulge."

"The term is 'Gae Bolg,' " Opal interrupted, "it's Gaelic. It means 'spear of mortal pain.' Or perhaps mortal death. " Opal's interruption drew a look from Brandish.

"Thanks," Glory Girl continued, "the wand says it should have ripped out my heart instantly, so that was nowhere near as bad as it could have been."

"I'm sorry," I said after a moment, "I'm so sorry, this is-"

"Princess, this is not your fault," Opal interrupted, "there was no way of knowing that there would be two Class Cards at that Mirror World, nor that Lancer would be so much and older and more powerful than most of the other spirits. Furthermore," she continued, "it's not like you invited Glory Girl to join us, she insisted on it." Opal hummed, "I was against it, but on the other hand if she hadn't been there then Lancer probably would have killed you." Opal twisted to look at Glory Girl. "So thank you for being an adequate meat shield."

"Opal!" I shouted just as Brandish glared at the Wand.

"Um, you're welcome?" Glory Girl said unsurely.

"Okay, Since you mentioned Armsmaster I'll assume you're telling the truth," Brandish said in a tone that made it abundantly clear that she'd be following up on that. "Why is a teenaged girl the only one who knows about these 'cards?' Why not go to the Protectorate and leave it to more experienced and trained heroes? Why go for them alone or with one other hero? And if these cards are so powerful and dangerous," she finished, "why should you be trusted with them?"

"If I may?" Opal answered for me. "My Master and I, prior to our first encounter with the Master of Arms, were the only ones who knew about the locations of the Cards because only I know how to detect them. My master goes after them on her own or with minimal help because only I can open the entrances to the Mirror Worlds where they reside and because I have complete faith in my Master's abilities." Opal bent into a shape that gave a vibe of smugness. "And I trust my Master with the Class Cards, so whether or not you do is utterly irrelevant and if you so much as think of trying to take them from her-"

"Opal," I interrupted, "be nice. We're all heroes here," I said while trying to keep my voice even. "There's no need to be at each other's throats."

"Princess," Opal answered me, "I will not sit here and just let some woman without a single magic circuit in her body question my Master's worthiness."

"You're being rude," I said in reply, "she's got every right to be a bit upset right now, I mean-"

"No, she doesn't," Opal interrupted, "not with you. You are not responsible for Glory Girl's injury. If anything she should be thanking you for bringing her child back to her so that she could be healed."

"Opal kind of has a point," Glory Girl added, "It's not like Princess made me go in there with her. You're being really harsh, Mom, Princess is a good guy. She and Opal are the ones who helped make that thug talk about where the kidnapped girls were, after all."

Brandish was silent for a moment. "Princess," she said, "it's late and I have to have a talk with my daughter about going out in the middle of the night without telling anyone. If you would prefer, we can table this discussion until a more appropriate hour." I nodded in agreement. "Victoria," she said, "escort your friend out and then come see me upstairs." Without another word, she left the room, her oddly silent husband following her shortly after.

"Look, Glory Girl, again I'm sorry-"

"No, none of that," she said as she approached me, "and call me Vicky, we're friends, right?"

I couldn't help but smile, just a little bit. "Y-yeah." I extended a hand to her. "Taylor." She took my hand and smiled. From the corner of my eye, I could see Panacea-Amy? I could see her giving me this odd look. "Well, anyway, I should probably be getting home," I said while trying to ignore Vicky's sister's strange stare. "I'll see you?"

"If I'm not grounded," Vicky replied.

I left the house and flew home. Normally I'd have told Dad about how the card retrieval mission had gone right away, but I was too tired, so I just went straight to bed and crashed. I dreamt I was flying.


	12. Interlude 3

**Interlude the Third**

It was a relatively quiet day at the cafe. No one had yet had a reason to raise a voice or draw a weapon, the latest three part-time employees were settling in nicely and looked just so cute in their uniforms, a certain Royal Pain had yet to arrive and harass a member of the trio of young women who were the cafe's best customers. In general, everything was quiet and peaceful.

It was also boring. All day only four customers total had come in, the aforementioned best customers and a fashionably dressed boy at a table at the far end of the cafe who'd ordered only a simple cup of tea. The Ahnenerbe staff, for the most part, had plenty of time and nothing to fill it with.

(Not that any of them dared to say that out loud, of course. Not after the incident with Magical Amber.)

"Everything is so boring right meow," declared Neco-Arc randomly. This, in turn, caused Lancer to swear.

Suddenly, the boy at the far end of the Cafe jumped to his feet. "Another one? Related to those I know but not from their meddling, strange… And an interloper? How did I not sense this before?" The boy then calmly left the building muttering something about gods and potion brewing. Lancer breathed a sigh in relief that the sudden chaos had been so minor.

"He didn't pay," one of the young girls who had started working part time said. "Should we go after him?"

"He didn't finish his tea either," another said.

"How naughty" noted the third.

"No," Lancer answered. "He's usually well behaved in comparison to certain other people. He'll be back eventually and we'll bill him then." Lancer had been working here long enough to know how to deal with certain customers. Not finishing his tea was odd, but at least he wasn't-

"Saber!" Shouted the newly arrived King of Heroes as he entered the cafe. "Once more I have come for you."

With a group sigh, the three Heroines-Artoria Pendragon, Arcueid Brunestud, and Ryougi Shiki-stood to once again deal with the Archer-class Servant who by now was more a nuisance than a threat.

"Girls," Lancer said to the three new employees, "go to the back room and stay there until I call for you." They were just children, they didn't need to see this. "And when I call you come back with the blood mop and the box labeled 'Table Repair.' "

"Nya, Arceuid's taking point this time," Interjected Neco-Arc, "we're going to need the roof repair kit."

The three young girls fled as they were told, the first to speak complaining about not seeing the fight as sounds of violence filled the Ahnenerbe.


	13. Chapter 10

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

I was walking through the halls of Winslow, with five minutes until first period, when I was grabbed and dragged into a bathroom. Once my brain had caught up to the sudden movement, I found myself staring into the face of my former friend Emma. My arms were being held behind me and a quick turn of my head revealed the psycho that Emma had replaced me with.

"My Dad said something interesting this morning," Emma said. "Apparently, he was talking to your dad the other day and 'Uncle Danny' said something about how you told him that you and I had a 'falling out.' " The traitor leaned in close. "Did the little cry-baby get sick of being put in her place and go whining to daddy?"

"No," I said quickly.

"Good," Emma said, "because we would all just hate it if a certain someone had to drop out of school and start selling her skinny, ugly ass on the streets just to afford food because she and her daddy were ruined by a lawsuit for defaming the character of her betters." She looked me over in an exaggerated way. "Not that anyone would pay for it, anyway. Because, Taylor, you're just the ugly, unpopular, little, weakling, who everyone hates. While I'm the popular student model, Sophia's the track star, and even Madison is the cute social butterfly. No one will take your word over ours, and no one in this school will side with a waste of space like you against us."

"So if you're thinking of pulling something like that," Sophia said from behind me, "don't. The only way this is stopping is when you stop wasting everyone's time just by existing." The thug threw me to the ground. My backpack came off in the struggle and she kicked it to the far end of the bathroom.

"Do everyone a favor and just leave," Emma said as she and Sophia turned to leave. "Just go home and cry yourself to sleep." Then, I was alone on the floor of a high school bathroom.

I felt Opal wiggle out of my hair. "Princess? Are you alright."

"I'm fine," I lied as I pushed myself up and went to get my bag.

"Princess, I can see the tears in your eyes."

I wiped my eyes and grabbed my bag. "It's fine," I said, "it's just more of the same shit as always." Opal didn't chastise me. "Come on, let's go."

Opal sighed. "You don't deserve this, Princess."

Once Opal was secured back in my hair, I left the bathroom. It was too late to get to get to class on time, but I didn't care, I wasn't heading for class, anyway. Not anymore.

"Princess," Opal whispered into my ear when she realized where I was heading, "you're not actually going to do what those ruffians-"

"No," I whispered back as I walked out of Winslow's doors, "I just need to be anywhere but here right now." I did a quick look around for witnesses. "Maybe we can stop a mugging or foil Uber and Leet's latest plot or something. Do something more meaningful then spend the day around people who inexplicably hate me."

Once I found a private enough looking alley, I ducked down it, tranced, and took off.

 **F/KLPT**

Okay, either I was really bad at spotting crimes in progress or there weren't that many muggings early in the morning… In hindsight, I probably should have suspected that maybe, just maybe, street criminals didn't operate early in the morning.

"Opal," I said, "I think if we're going to be doing the hero thing then we should probably research the behavior patterns of criminals."

"Probably."

I did a quick fly over by the docks, the worst neighborhood in town. If there was anything going down, it would be going down there. It had to be a quick one, in case Dad stepped out of his office at the dockyard and looked up, but… nothing.

I hmm'd, then looked at Opal, "Now what?"

"Well, obviously we should probably land and power down," Opal replied, "as much as I'd love for you to show off your regal radiance, doing so while truant from school would probably garner the wrong sort of attention." Opal bent in contemplation. "We can always check for more villainy in progress a little later."

"I guess." I flew around for a bit, looking for a good place to land and change back. After a minute, I noticed something odd. There was an empty side street near the boardwalk… Well, empty except for a blonde looking up and waving in my general direction.

I landed and the blonde greeted me. "Good morning, Hero. Getting an early start?"

"Kind of, Lisa." As far as I could tell there was no-one else around so I just untranced in the street. "Shit happened, I had to leave school, decided to do something productive… Then there were no street crimes or villainy going on to stop right now."

"And while you're somewhat happy that no-one is in immediate danger right now," Lisa picked up, "you can't help but be a little bit disappointed that you can't do any heroics right now."

"Exactly," I answered. "And there hasn't been anything magical to do since the other day… Opal," I changed gears, "did the cards have anything to do with the-"

"There's been no change in the greater anomaly as of yet," Opal replied. "However, I'm not sure that we can rule out a connection just yet, but there are no specific leads on either the greater anomaly or where the Class Cards came from just yet." Opal perked up. "Oh, that reminds me, I spoke with my Onee-sama last night, she and her own master wish us luck in our mission."

"...Opal," I asked, "What does that word mean?"

"Oh… I think the most accurate translation would be respected elder sister," Opal explained, "Sapphire most commonly speaks Japanese, her master is Japanese, and they're based in the Japan of the world they reside in, so the Japanese term just feels like it fits."

I was about to ask since, apparently, Opal knows Japanese, if she could tell me what Caster's incantations mean, but then Lisa interrupted with a flat "okay then." Her expression changed though. "Well, if you need something to do for a bit you can hang out with me. I'm just running some errands, but..."

I smiled. "Sounds lovely."

 **F/KLPT**

"And I think my world issues teacher is obsessed with capes. Every other assignment is capes," I half-explained-half-complained. "Next week I've got to write a five-page report on a foreign hero."

"And everybody and their grandma is doing Dragon or Masamune," Lisa correctly guessed, "or else another member of the Guild, so if you want a good grade you either need to pick someone else or do a phenomenal job of what everybody else is doing."

"Exactly." Not that I was so sure I should put in the effort-chances are that it'll get ruined or stolen by one of three bitches before I can turn it in.

Lisa and I had been all over town-normally I'd be nervous going to and through some places, but I had Opal and the class Cards with me, and Lisa had said she had "friends" who'd told her the safest ways to get through those places. Along the way, we'd just started talking about whatever. Right now we were heading back towards the Docks… Had it been long enough that there might be crimes to stop?

"Well, you could always-"

"Taylor," a somewhat familiar voice called out and interrupted Lisa. I turned and saw Mr. Saito… heading back to his shop with a package in his hands. We were on the same street as Saito Repairs and I hadn't even noticed. "Shouldn't you be in school right now?"

"Taylor," Lisa asked, "who is this?"

"Uh, this is Mr. Saito," I half heartedly introduced, "he's kind of a friend of my Dad's, kind of… He owns and runs the repair shop… there," I gestured lamely in the direction of Saito Repairs. "Mr. Saito, this is my friend Lisa."

Mr. Saito shifted his package so that it was under his arm, then walked over and extended a hand to Lisa. "It's a pleasure to meet you, young miss."

Lisa took his hand and shook it. "The feeling is mutual."

The greeting done, Mr. Saito turned back to me. "Now, why aren't you in school right now?"

Crap! "Winslow has an administration day, school's closed." Please buy it, please buy it, please buy it.

"Taylor, a lot of the high school aged children in this neighborhood go to Winslow," Mr. Saito began, "if the school was closed, they wouldn't have all left this morning." Damn it!

"Um… Look,"I began half-heartedly, "some stuff happened and I had to leave for the sake of my mental health." I looked the young man in the eyes while doing my best impression of a puppy. "Please don't tell my Dad."

Mr. Saito was silent for a moment. "I won't tell your father," he said after a moment, "but I can't in good conscience let a pair of girls your age wander around this part of the city. If you need to spend time away from your problems, you can hang out in my shop where it's safe."

I looked toward Lisa. she'd taken out her phone and seemed to be texting something to someone. "I can put off my last few errands for a bit," she said when she finished.

"Okay then," I answered, "I guess that would be okay."

A few minutes later, Lisa and I were sitting at a small table in the corner of Mr. Saito's workshop. "Is there something I can offer you?" the repairman asked. "Tea? Biscuits? I've got some homemade jam."

"You keep homemade jam in your shop?" Lisa asked.

Mr. Saito got a look in his eye. A strange look that I'm not quite sure how to describe. "I always have homemade jam on hand." Then he blinked. "And I live in the apartment in the basement."

"Okay then," Lisa answered. "Well... maybe a little bit. It'd be rude to refuse, right?" I nodded, I guess that was right.

A few more minutes later, Lisa and I had been provided with the items in question(Mr. Saito was a talented jam maker,) and the repair man had gotten to work. As it had turned out, the package he was holding was the motor of a Segway. A neighbor of his had brought one in and the motor it had come with was completely fried.

"So, Taylor," Lisa began after a sip of tea, "you were saying something about an essay on foreign capes?"

"Yeah, five pages on a foreign hero," I said, "and all the well-known ones are taken."

"I know a couple of more obscure, by American standards, foreign operating heroes," Mr. Saito added without looking up from the gadget he was fixing.

"You do?"

"Yes," he said matter of factly. "There's Jupiter, in Italy-he can fly and generate large amounts of electricity from his hands."

"So he named himself after Zeus-using the Roman name," Lisa interjected.

"Exactly, There's also Hexe Königin, in Germany," Mr. Saito continued, "she's a bit like Eidolon, I think, and styles herself as a queen of witches-hence the name. Then there was Muramasa."

"Wait, I've heard that legend," Lisa interrupted. It was vaguely familiar to myself too, "Muramasa was a swordsmith with a bad temper. Due to circumstances too numerous to account here, the legend formed that his swords, while of legendary quality, were cursed. Why would a hero name himself after a swordsmith with such a story?"

Mr. Saito took a deep breath and then began. "Miyazaki Eijirou was a man who saw the world in a terrible state and devoted his life to fixing it. However, after several years the man came to believe himself to be cursed-no matter what he did or what sacrifices he made, he never seemed to be able to make any major long term changes for the better." Mr. Saito sounded wistful. "Then he got his powers. He was what is called a Tinker, a parahuman whose powers manifest as a superhuman affinity for technology and the sciences. His power was particularly adept at the creation of blades with special properties."

"Let me guess," Lisa interrupted, "even after getting his powers his 'curse' was still there?"

"Exactly," Mr. Saito finished, "and so he twisted Muramasa-not a maker of cursed swords, but a sword maker who was himself cursed. Though, even in his belief in its futility, Muramasa continued trying to save lives and make the world a better place, even as the stress of it all took its toll on him. Still, till the day he died, he kept trying to save as many people as he could."

I had to ask. "How did he die?"

"He was on Kyushu when Leviathan attacked." Mr. Saito said solemnly. Kyushu... it wasn't there anymore. "When he became convinced that the fight was lost, Muramasa abandoned direct combat with the Beast and focused all of his efforts on helping people evacuate. Per an eye-witness account," Mr. Saito said, "when the ground beneath his feet began to shake and crumble, Muramasa removed his mask and told the first person he saw who he thought might live his name and asked them to deliver a message, before he went back to find one last person he might be able to rescue."

"Do you know the message?"

"The last words anyone living ever heard Muramasa say were 'My name is Miyazaki Eijirou of Fuyuki. Find my son and tell him that he is loved.' " That... That was some heavy stuff.

"That was awfully detailed, Mr. Saito." Lisa sounded a bit... Incredulous.

"Muramasa was based in Fuyuki," Mr. Saito replied, "while I lived in Kobe, Fuyuki wasn't that far away. Being one of the 'local' heroes, Muramasa was a favorite of many young boys, myself included." A smile came to the repair man's face. "There's something admirable, I think, about a man who knows that something is a lost cause but still fights for it-someone who tries to save everyone even though he knows it's impossible. Of course," he said, somber once more, "there's just one more hint of tragedy: When an island crumbles and sinks, it's never clean. There were waves going out, and Fuyuki was flooded so badly that I think there are still documents that mistakenly claim that it was on Kyushu itself. It's unknown if the younger Miyazaki survived." He finished with something or other, then turned on the Segway he'd been tinkering with. The wheels turned but the new motor wasn't making a sound. "I think this is done."

"I think," I said, "that I know who I'm writing about. Can I cite you in my essay?"

"Of course," he answered, "if you'd like I have plenty of stories about him that I can share with you. Of course," he continued, "you'd have to find corroboration for some of them but it can't be that hard."

"I'd like that." I reached for my bag-I'd have to ask Opal where it had gone when I'd transformed later-to get my notebook. Then I felt Opal tug on my hair and... Aw crap, she was going to tease the hell out of me over this later.

Lisa was checking her phone. "I do need to finish that errand though," she said, "Taylor if I left now would you be okay?"

"Yeah."

"Are you going to be alright alone?" Mr. Saito asked my friend.

"Yeah," she answered, "I know all the safest ways to get around town, and it's honestly not that far from here. after that, I'll be with other friends, so..."

"Alright then, be safe."

And in just a moment, I was alone with Mr. Saito, taking notes as he worked and told stories about a cursed hero.


	14. Chapter 11

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

How the hell had Lisa talked me into this? Here I was, standing in front of a Boardwalk coffee shop dressed in the nicest clothes I own. Lisa had somehow talked me into meeting her friend Brian here on a blind date. Well, "date" wasn't the right word I don't think. I mean, we were meeting here and we were just going to talk over tea or coffee or something. That's not a date, is it? I don't think that's a date.

I kept my eyes peeled. I'd seen pictures of him, so I'd recognize him when I saw him and-there. Brian was a handsome young black man, with a lantern jaw and his hair pulled back in cornrows. He was tall-taller than me, and I was pretty tall, with wide shoulders and a good deal of muscle. He was dressed sharply, in a nice shirt, nice jeans, and an open blazer.

I waved to him and he came over. "Brian?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Yeah, that's me" he answered. "And you must be Taylor."

"Yeah." And then we stood there awkwardly and silently for a moment.

…

…

…

…

"So," Brian asked, "We should probably go in."

"Yeah." Oh god, I was going to strangle Lisa the next time I saw her.

The young man and I walked into the coffee shop... and waited for an awkward few minutes until a table opened for us. The shop was very crowded today. Weekend, relatively early in the day. It made sense that it would be crowded. Eventually, we were seated and placed orders-a cup of coffee for him and a cup of black tea, with milk, for me.

And then more awkward silence. I started looking around at the other patrons… Yeah, just ordinary people like us… Well, except one vaguely familiar blonde chick who was glaring at Brian and I. Off the top of my head, there's only the one reason someone would glare at a white girl and a black boy sitting together, but I figured that if Sabrina the Teenaged Nazi-Wannabe over there wasn't going to start shit then she wasn't worth paying attention to.

I turned back to Brian, but finding nothing to say I just started tapping my finger on the table. For what it was worth, he seemed to be just as unsure what to do as I was… Was that Madison? No, false alarm.

Our tea and coffee had been brought and still, neither of us said a word. I took a sip and thought for a moment. "So," I said, trying to break the ice, "Lisa hasn't really told me anything about you, so… Tell me about yourself?"

"There's not much t say about myself, really" he began, "I'm either working or trying to keep my sister out of trouble. If I have free time I'm either working out or reading." A responsible big brother, an athletic type, and a reader. Well, that was something. I thought about asking him what his job was, but he continued. "So, what about you?"

"I'm still a student, so a lot of my time is taken up by school," I said… "Until recently I was kind of a loner, but about a month ago I started making some friends, so in my spare time if I'm not reading I'm hanging out with one of them." After thinking about it for a minute, I added. "And recently I've been considering doing some volunteer work." Being a cape counted as volunteer work, right? I mean, I wasn't getting paid for it… at least not right now.

"That's interesting," Brian said before taking a sip of his coffee. More silence, and then "Look, I'll be honest with you. I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm not even looking for this kind of relationship. I'm sorry, you seem nice, but I'm only here because Lisa called in a favor."

"Oh thank god," I half-said-half-sighed. That was a relief. "I honestly have no idea how she talked me into this." From the corner of my eye, I saw a young Asian man look straight at us and then pour a significant amount of sugar into his coffee.

"Yeah, she can do that to you," Brian said. "I saw a guy harassing her once. She made him soil himself just by talking."

I laughed, then tugged the collar of my blouse. "She duck-seasoned me into letting her buy this outfit for me."

We both laughed. The ice sufficiently broken, we spent the next ten minutes talking about books we'd read, things we'd done, and so on. Then the conversation went in an odd direction.

"Have you ever checked out the 'haunted' cafe just outside the boardwalk?"

"I've heard of it," Brian said, "but I've never seen the appeal of investigating town rumors. What's the story behind that place, anyway?"

"Oh, it was just this really old cafe," I explained, "like I don't know how old but it closed down in the eighties. Nobody ever bought it, the building got run down, and like all abandoned run down buildings in prominent locations the rumors about it being haunted started flowing." I thought back to some bitter memories. "A... A friend and I snuck into the building one Halloween back in middle school, but I couldn't stay long. Something about the place gave me the creeps."

"Yeah, I never did anything like that," Brian admitted, "it sounds like something I'd have to keep my sister from doing though."

"My parents had a date there," I said, "before it closed down. Said the service was exemplary, that they'd never seen a more diverse menu, and Dad called the place magical." I sighed. "I kind of wish I'd gotten a chance to go." Brian hummed in acknowledgment.

We talked a bit more, on various subjects. Eventually, however, we finished our drinks and paid.

"I'd like to see you again," I told the young man as we left the coffee house. "I mean, not as a date." Not that that had been much of a date by the end, even if it might have started as one. "But if we could just hang out as friends sometime?"

"If I can find the time," Brian agreed. We parted ways and I went home. I passed the haunted cafe on me way out and stopped for a moment to take it in. The cast-iron sign was rusted from decades of neglect, but I could still make out the letters that spelled "Ahnenerbe." Opal, resting in my hair but thankfully silent throughout the afternoon, shuddered. I'd have to ask her why later.


	15. Chapter 12

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

Well, that had escalated quickly.

I'd been flying over the city and had encountered the robed form of E88's Rune, standing on what looked like part of a car that was floating in the sky. She apparently wasn't up to something and I'd almost managed to convince her to just go home, but something or other had set her off.

Which is why I found myself dodging an expensive looking car as it was hurled at me by a telekinetic neo-nazi. I'm not even sure where it came from because we weren't currently in a wealthy neighborhood or anything. Rune was dangerous because she had mobility and range. So did I, but I couldn't exactly fight back as I was without risking a good deal of property damage or seriously hurting Rune… I reached into my holster and drew out a card. I'd be loose mobility, and I'd have to be careful, but I'd gain in versatility and battlefield control and that was more important right now.

I saw the young villain up in the air on a piece of miscellaneous debris, looking for something else to throw, and used the opening to use the card. "Install: Lancer!"

Considering Lancer's state of dress when I'd fought her in the mirror world, I'd felt it prudent to try her Install at home, behind locked doors… and try out some small applications of runic magic while I was at it. I've got to say, I was quite happy with the result.

The pulsing mana and magic circles cleared, revealing that my Princess costume had been replaced with a snug, dark purple ensemble that hugged my body tightly and covered me from head to toe. My hair was pulled back into a long, tightly braided tail, no tiara, a cloth mask covered my mouth and nose, metal pauldrons at my shoulders, and a loose, flowing skirt of the same cloth covered me from hips to mid-thigh. My arms were sealed into sleeves that seamlessly turned into gloves, and I was wearing what seemed to be purple, metal-armored high heels, but neither was anywhere as big a problem as you might think. A Gae Bolg, one of many Lancer could summon, appeared in my hand. I spun the long spear of red, metallic bone behind my back, two full rotations, before thrusting it out and swinging it up, cleaving a piece of concrete in half.

The pieces landed harmlessly on either side of me. I looked up to Rune, smiling behind my mask. We made eye contact, and I lifted my left hand and made the 'bring it' gesture. The teen was surrounded by telekinetically lifted chunks of concrete, wooden planks, and what appeared to be part of a chain link fence-where we near a construction site? No, I need to focus. The villain threw the segment of fencing at me, but I jumped up onto it and used it as a launch pad to jump up and strike at Rune with the broadside of my spear.

The black-and-red-robed villain lost her balance trying to avoid my strike and nearly fell from her perch. As it was, she lost her grip on the debris, and I was able to step up unto the car frame she stood on and draw a few runes of my own in the air in front of her chest. A touch of will, a bit of mana, and a whisper of what I'm pretty sure is Gaelic and the same runes appeared in glowing white light on Rune's body, causing her, and by extension the wrecked vehicle we were standing on to slowly sink to the ground.

"What in Helheim?" Oh, God. She was one of those Neo-Nazis.

"Oh, you know," I began before casually backflipping a dozen feet back, "just a little Celtic magic."

It was hard to tell because of the hood the wizardly themed villain was wearing, but I got the impression that she was glaring at me as she stepped off of the piece of car she'd been riding and hurled it at me.

I casually countered with the conjuring of a few more runes, which turned to fire and blasted the ruined vehicle apart.

"The fuck was that!?" the villain shouted.

I rolled my eyes. "Magic runes, Rune, do try to keep up."

"Bullshit! That was Elder Futhark," the villain yelled with genuine anger in her voice, "you were using Irish trash-runes before. You can't just mix them up however you want!"

I laughed, "I can do whatever I want." I dodged a two by four. "See, I'm the magus, and you're the Hitler Youth reject co-opting an ancient culture to make yourself feel better about being afraid of people with a teensy bit more skin-pigment than you do." A swing of my spear destroyed a chunk of concrete. "I think I'm just a bit more qualified to say how runic magic works than you are."

"Technically," Opal's voice rang out from my right pauldron, "you're not quite a magus-there's more to it than just studying and using magecraft, you know."

"Not the time Opal," I said in reply.

"You little bitch!" The teen villain shouted. I think I touched a nerve. Well, at least I knew what I'd done to piss her off this time. "I bet you're a fucking hebe, too!"

At first, I was confused, but then it clicked: "I'm not Jewish," I said in reply to her slur. "But even if I was, well, hath not a Jew eyes?" My mother was an English professor. When I was younger, I'd sometimes sit in on her classes. Thus, I was more or less obligated to quote Shylock's speech from The Merchant of Venice in this situation.

"The fuck's that supposed to mean!?"

I blinked. "Read a book sometime, will you?"

Rune crouched down and did something to the asphalt below her feet, marking it with her hand, before standing back and ripping a huge chunk of the street, roughly the size of a person, out of the road and sending it high up into the sky. I think she was planning to crush me with it, but she was leaving herself wide open to a counter attack. I could have just taken her out if I'd wanted to, but where would the fun be in that?

The large mass of asphalt was high up in the sky, well clear of even the highest part of the city's skyline. I'd doubt that I'd even be able to see it if I wasn't using Lancer's install… I didn't need to worry about collateral damage this way.

I leaned back and turned, prepared to toss my spear straight up, and began focusing on it and channeling mana into it in preparation for one of its uses.

Rune took notice of my spear's red glow. "What?"

I didn't answer her. Rather, when I had a nice fiery cone of red light, I tossed my spear straight into the sky. "Gae Bolg..." I said, and as the spear pierced the hunk of street that she'd been planning to crush me with, I finished, "Alternative!"

The piece of asphalt was completely consumed as the space around it was warped and filled with a spherical orange explosion.

"Thank you," I said to Rune as she stared at me, mouth agape. "I've been wanting to test that out for a while now but I was always worried about collateral damage." I casually held out a hand to catch the Gae Bolg as it fell from the sky. "I really hope that anybody who was watching enjoyed the show, I know I did."

Rune responded by flinging everything she'd marked right at me. Rather than counter with spells, I summoned a dozen other Gae Bolg and sent them flying, piercing or destroying each projectile before they could make contact.

"How dare you-" I didn't let the Neo-Nazi finish. Instead, I threw my Original Gae Bolg at her, right between her legs, knocking her over and pinning her to the ground by her robe. "Fuck you, you piece of shit! You whore! You-" I tuned her out after that.

I made to walk over to double check that I didn't hit her legs and cut her or anything, but I collapsed to my knees after a single step. I took a moment to catch my breath, and my breathing came out a bit harder than I'd have expected a few minutes ago. I'd made a mistake, I'd forgotten that Opal couldn't replenish my mana when I was using an Install and that Noble Phantasm used up a lot of it. Heh, it was worth it.

I pushed myself up and checked to make sure I didn't knick one of Rune's arteries or something… Yeah, no blood, so I guess…

It was at that time that I realized that I had no idea what to do with a villain I'd defeated. Was, was I supposed to call it in? I didn't have a cell phone, we didn't really believe in them at home since Mom's accident. I started looking around to see if I could find a pay phone when I noticed that someone was watching me.

Standing atop a building that had seen better days was a feminine figure in a tight, black outfit with metal armor and gauntlets, wrapped in a hooded cloak of dark grey urban camo, her face concealed by a black metal mask with a stern expression. She was holding a crossbow in each hand and staring right at me.

It took me a second to realize who it was, but then I waved and called out: "Hey, Shadow Stalker, right!?" The dark figure didn't respond. "Look, um… You're a Ward, right? Could you maybe call this in for me." I pointed to Rune. Still no response. "Oh, um, sorry. I'm Princess, I'm a hero." Shadow Stalker cocked her head to the left, then turned around. She turned into a mass of gas and shadow and floated away.

"Okay then." That was… Okay, that was rude. I checked Rune again, she was still pinned but she was struggling. "Cut that out," I said in my most authoritative voice, my heels clicking as I walked towards her. "You? You're probably going to juvie, and you'll probably have to share it with minority offenders. I really hope that someone will properly educate you on why your philosophy is a load of horse shit."

"Language, Princess," Opal chastised. I rolled my eyes.

"Now, you stay put, I'm gonna go find a pay phone so I can call someone to take you in, okay?"

Rune responded by calling me what I assume to have been a slur. And looking up at me, smugly.

"What? Do you think you're going to get away?" I asked. "You're not. I just took you down without getting a scratch. The only time I exerted myself at all was when I was showing off and having fun." I laughed, I was starting to get into the role. "You're going away for a long time, and nobody is going to rescue you, either, since you're just one angry, bitter, scared, stupid kid among thousands that Kaiser has on tap."

Rune replied by cursing me out and screaming while struggling impotently to free herself from the spear pinning her to the street. I ignored her and started looking up and down the street for any sign of a payphone. Nothing on this street. I ran up and around a building to peak into the next street over. No payphones. I went to check the street opposite, only to catch a glimpse of Rune literally tearing off her robe to get free. I was far up the street from where she was. I took off running after her, but by the time I was halfway to her she'd managed to rip up another platform of asphalt and start flying away on it, heading towards the towers. She turned back to flip me off just as she cleared my line of sight. I stomped in frustration.

I slowed down to a walk and, where I got to where the torn robe was still pinned, surrounded by two huge divots in the street, and plucked the Gae Bolg from the street before reverting the Install.

"Princess," Opal began, "Are you?"

"I'm fine," I said… Okay, I was kind of disappointed that my first major win ended with the baddie getting away, but I'd get her next time. "Let's go home."

I took off and started flying towards home. "I think I'm going to have to get a cell phone or something," I said after a moment, "so that that doesn't happen again."

"You know," Opal explained, "this probably isn't the best time to say this, but I could probably tap into this Earth's communication networks, and then I'd be able to use my communicator function to call people for you."

I sighed. "Now you tell me."

 **F/KLPT**

I was sitting on the couch sketching runes in a notebook. I figured that if I could learn a little bit of magecraft that I could do on my own, then maybe I'd have a backup plan if I couldn't use a card or get to Opal. Dad had gotten an odd look on his face when I'd told him what I was doing.

I caught the phone ringing and got up to answer. "Hello, Hebert residence."

"Taylor," came the voice of my cape friend from the other end, "It's Vicky, you wanna go patrolling with me tonight?"

"I'd love to," I said truthfully, "but I can't. I'm going to see a movie with a friend tonight, so..."

"A friend," Vicky replied, "or a friend?"

I was glad that she couldn't see me blush over the phone. "Just a friend."

"Okay, okay... By the way, that big orange explosion last weekend…?"

"Yeah," I admitted, "that was me. Wanted to test something out and a villain gave me a chance to do so without collateral damage." There was a tone, "Oh, hang on a second, someone's on the other line." I switched over and answered, "hello, Hebert Residence."

"Taylor," came Brian's voice, "I'm going to have to cancel on you for tonight."

"...Why?"

And then he explained it to me. Once he'd hung up, I switched back to Vickey.

"Change of plans. You wanna help me try and find a runaway before she gets hurt?"

 **F/KLPT**

"So, what's this girl look like again?" Glory Girl asked as she flew beside me.

"Black, thirteen or fourteen," I began, "pretty, um, developed, blonde streak in her hair, dresses really trashy." I lept from the roof of one building to another.

"Got it," she replied, "and um… One more question."

"Shoot."

"Can I pet you?"

I stopped in my tracks, my ear twitching, and I turned back to glare at her. "Not the time, Geegee."

"But Foxy-Princess is so cute," Glory Girl explained, "I want to pick you up and carry you around in my purse."

I was starting to regret Installing Caster for this mission.

"Look, we're looking for a young girl and we're trying to find her before the violent racists, drug pushers, and human traffickers do. Can we table this discussion until after we find Aisha?" Aisha was Brian's sister, she'd run away from home, not for the first time from what Brian had said.

"Sorry, sorry," Vicky said. Then her grin turned playful, "but still, why go all foxy on me?"

"Because Caster feels weird," I explained, "and I need to get used to it. Besides," I pointed to my ears, "I figure that these might come in handy when trying to find someone."

Speak of the devil: My right ear twitched. I turned and picked it up-four people running, panicked breathing, cursing… something about a little bitch. "This way!"

I took off running and lept across two rooftops before dropping into an alley between three grown men and the young girl they were chasing.

"Stop right there, criminal scum!" I shouted. Everyone stopped running. "What do we have here," I asked rhetorically, "three grown men chasing a young girl?"

The three men, a white one, a black one, and someone who was either mixed race or a dark latino, were dressed in filthy, wrinkled clothing-the white man wasn't even wearing shoes. They had greying hair and all of them were thin, wrinkled and had bags under their eyes. The white man smiled wide and I saw that he only had five yellow teeth and was drooling like crazy. It took me a moment, but the three men all had a stench about them, as though none of them had bathed in weeks.

"The little bitch, she came up out of nowhere, yeah," he said excitedly. "Spooked my friends and me, made us drop our crystal, fell down a sewer, yeah." His voice was unusually high. "This was good shit, yeah, real expensive. She owes us. If she don't got money, she can pay us back other ways. Her clothes look expensive, and people in this town are always looking for the right kind of company, yeah." My skin crawled at the implication of the junky's statement.

"Yeah, not gonna happen," I said authoritatively, "now you can either turn around and leave or I'll be forced to make you."

The three men all proceeded to charge at me. I briefly wondered how much of the meth they'd taken before they'd dropped it. I grabbed the spokesman of the group by the arm and flipped him onto his back. The black man was knocked down with a punch to the chest, and the third junky was dispatched with a sandaled heel right in the family jewels. All in all, it took me perhaps five seconds to take the three men down. Having learned my lesson from Rune, I summoned three of Caster's paper talismans and, placing one on each prone meth-head, worked a simple curse to rob each man of their strength for a few hours.

It was then that Glory Girl managed to catch up with me. She took one good look at the downed men, then landed and faced me. "Wow, save some for me why don't you?"

"Sorry," I said in reply to her deadpan, "civilian in danger, hero instincts going off. I'm sure you know how it go-YIP!"

The girl behind me had firmly grasped my tail and given it a sharp tug.

"Hey," she said, "it's real."

I snatched my poor abused tail back and hugged it protectively before turning my gaze to the girl. "Yes, it's real. How would you like it if I just grabbed and yanked part of-Oh." The girl was black, young, thirteen or fourteen, pretty, far more developed than I was, with a blonde streak in her hair, and dressed far trashier than she has any right to be.

"Huh," Glory Girl said, "that was easy."

"Aisha Laborn?" I asked, "there are people at home who are worried about you."

"Yeah right," she began. Then she paused and looked at me. "They don't normally send capes after runaway kids, especially not ones who've been gone for less than a day." She looked me right in the eyes. "How do you know me?"

"Uh..." I did not think that through. At all.

"Wait a second," the girl continued, "long black curly hair, big brown eyes, tall, cute, kinda scrawny… You're Brian's new girlfriend!"

"I'm not his girlfriend!" I shouted in instinct… Then the realization of what I just said and did caught up with me. "Oh fuck."

"Language, Princess," Chastised Opal from Caster's mirror.

Aisha proceeded to start laughing uncontrollably.

"You see," Glory Girl added, "this is one of the reasons why New Wave doesn't have Secret Identities."

"Thank you, peanut gallery," I deadpanned to the blonde hero, "now look," I said, pointing to Aisha, "you can't tell anyone about this, understand."

"Relax," she said between bouts of laughter, "It's funnier," she was struggling to breathe, "it's funnier if Brian doesn't know he's dating a Superhero." I was going to question why, but I thought better of it.

"Okay then, just so we're clear." I took a deep breath. "Now, are you going to go home, or are we going to have to take you home?"

The younger girl looked thoughtful for a moment, "Okay. I'll go back to my dad's house… If you let me touch your ears."

I blinked. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

I sighed and knelt down. "Just get it over with."

Having foxy ears does not make getting scratched behind them feel any better than it would normally. Mostly it just felt weird and was really awkward and embarrassing. When Aisha was done, Glory Girl agreed to fly her home, mostly so I didn't have to risk being recognized by anyone else in Brian's family. Before she left, however, she pulled a cell phone and called the police to deal with the three meth-heads. I moved the drug addicts onto a sidewalk and waited until the police arrived, handed them over, answered a few questions, and went home, all while trying not to think too hard about the fact that Brian apparently thought I was cute.


	16. Interlude 4

**Interlude The Fourth**

Brian had called Lisa for a team meeting. It was late, after midnight, but Brian had said it was important and Lisa had no reason to disbelieve him. She entered the Undersiders' loft and went into the common area to be greeting by their group's nominal leader with a stern expression on his face.

"Spill."

Lisa blinked and drew upon her power.

 _Brian knows something._

 _Brian knows something that he thinks I know._

 _Brian knows something I didn't want him to know_

 _Brian knows I'm using my power to figure out what he's talking about._

 _Brian thinks asking is a formality._

 _This has something to do with Taylor._

Lisa cut off her power there. She wasn't 100% sure what this was about, but she could guess. "Spill about what?" She only had so many minutes of power use a day, why should she waste it to confirm a suspicion?

"At about three thirty this afternoon," Brian began, "I called Taylor to cancel some plans we had this evening, telling her that my sister had run away from home again." He paused, clearly expecting Lisa to understand what he was getting at. "At five thirty, Aisha was flown home by Glory Girl, with a story about being rescued from violent meth addicts by Glory Girl and an independent Hero. When I went back to my father's house to talk to her, she couldn't stop laughing at me when I asked about the independent. Taylor's a hero." He wasn't asking. "And you knew when you set me up with her."

"She's doing it for fun," Lisa hurriedly explained, "and is mostly interested in 'big bads' and stopping muggings. She only really goes out heroing on weekend evenings or when she's taking a mental health day from school, and I've got a decent idea of her pattern." Lisa raised a finger to prevent Brian from interrupting. "Unless Lung or Kaiser goes off the deep end and there's open warfare in the streets, the chances of her coming after the Undersiders are slim to none."

"Lisa," Brian said slowly, "you do not set a supervillain on a blind date with a superhero. It's not done."

"You'd be surprised," Lisa said, "it's one of the more plausible suggestions for how Assault ended up with Battery… Not sure which one was the villain though."

"I thought they were siblings?"

"Also a distinct possibility."

Both teenaged villains shuddered.

"Anyway," Lisa continued, "you're not breaking up with her."

"We're not da-"

"And I'm going to explain why you're not breaking up with her," Lisa interrupted, "for one, you'll be good for each other. You're her type exactly and she's just out there enough to pull you out of your comfort zone. Two," Lisa held up two fingers, "She's already got issues with trust and betrayal that she's just barely getting over. You just breaking up with her out of nowhere would irritate the hell out of her mental scar tissue and… Look, I don't know what she was like before I met her, but I know it was bad and she was just starting to get past it."

"Lisa, we aren't-"

"Three," Lisa continued once again, refusing to let her leader voice his thoughts, "you're already attached to her. And four..."

"Damn it, Lisa, I'm not-"

"I have so much blackmail on you it's not even funny," Lisa finished with a grin. "Hurt my friend over a minimal risk and I tell your sister where you hide your stash."

"Mommy? Daddy?" interrupted a third voice in the snarkiest tone imaginable, "are you getting a divorce?" Brian and Lisa turned in unison to face the dark-haired pretty boy who had walked into the common room. Without missing a beat the boy, Alec, walked to the television, turned on both the TV and a game console, and flipped onto the couch with a controller in hand. "If you're done talking about Grue's Girlfriend, do you think you could go elsewhere? The gamers in Sydney get started around this time and I'd like to grief some Australian CoD players."

Brian's eyes twitched. "Fine, whatever, we won't do anything until this blows up in our faces." The frustration in his voice was palpable.

"If it helps," Lisa continued, "I'm not even sure she's really a parahuman-she claims to be magic and has a lot of focus on props, one of which seems to be Tinker-Tech, and I didn't even suspect she was a cape until she told me herself."

"So what?" Brian asked, "You think she got some Tinker to make her toys so she could play Hero or something?"

"Or that she found it somewhere," Lisa continued, "or it found her. Regardless," Lisa said, changing the subject, "I've got a decent grasp of her personality. On the off chance that we do run into her I'm sure I can talk our way out of a fight."

 **Meanwhile**

Opal was returning from an errand. Yes, an errand. That was her story and she was sticking to it. Her Princess was sleeping soundly and Mr. Hebert was occupied with something, so now, of course, was the best time to do the ultra important, super regal, and not at all trivial task she'd decided that she needed to do.

Strange, Mr. Hebert had been up in his bedroom when she'd left, but now he was downstairs in the living room, watching the cable news with the volume on mute, a glass of some brown liquor in one hand and the crystal he'd snatched up from the basement the day that she and her Princess warded the house. On the floor, within easy reach of the man sitting on the couch, was a bottle. The man kept looking away from the television to contemplate the crystal, a dour expression on his face.

"Mr. Hebert?" She called out as she approached, "are you alright?"

The man finished his drink in one gulp, set down the crystal, and poured himself another before he answered. "My cup runneth over, Opal. Unfortunately, it's full of elephant shit."

Opal cringed at his coarse language but didn't comment. "What happened?"

Mr. Hebert sighed. "Before I can tell you, you have to promise me that you'll never tell Taylor what I'm about to tell you. More so than our family's history as one of Magi, more so than any secret The Wizard Marshal or your siblings may have asked you to keep, more than anything, you can't let Taylor find out."

Opal gulped, an impressive feat as she had neither a mouth nor a throat, but she made a nodding motion. "Alright, I promise."

"This," he said, picking up the crystal, "is a mystic code that was created by my Great Grandfather. It died when the mana started vanishing, but I kept it all this time as a keepsake… And sometimes a paperweight..."

He trailed off, and Opal let him gather his thoughts and continue.

"But, it suddenly snapped back to life while you and Taylor were," he made a motion with his hand, and Opal knew what he meant. "It's a divination tool," Mr. Hebert explained, "as long as this crystal has a magical charge, even a fifth-rate magus with hardly any training could divine the contents of a soul and trace it all the way back to Akasha."

Opal suddenly remembered the question he'd asked her, back when her Princess had flown for the first time. "A tool to easily learn someone's Origin?"

"It's been years since I've worked even the merest of mysteries," Danny admitted, "but a magus upbringing leaves you with habits that die hard. After weeks of consideration, I chose to sate my curiosity about Taylor's magical aptitude, and I chose poorly."

Opal began to fear the answer, but she had to ask. "What is it?"

"Well, for starters, she's not an Average One." The former magus took a sip from his drink, "she's something else. Something far rarer, far more special, far more prized, something... Something far more blessed, but far more cursed."

Opal realized what Mr. Hebert meant and blanched. "Oh. Oh Dear." Opal felt that if she had a respiratory system, she'd have been hyperventilating at that moment. "I… I could contact my sisters or their masters, or Lord-"

"No!" Mr. Hebert shouted. He stood up in a hurry, dropping his drink and spilling half of it on the carpet. "I don't care what advice they could give or how good their intentions would be, the more people who know the more likely it is that Taylor-or worse, someone wanting to use her-could learn about, about this, and..." The man seemed to bite his own tongue, forcing himself to calm down. Opal realized that he didn't want to wake Taylor. He sank down back into the couch. "Opal… I saw a martyr dying for what he believed in. I saw a young Aztec woman on a sacrificial altar. I saw a child in the heart of Europe being tortured to death by her own mother for some dark thaumaturgy and an elderly Japanese woman putting some of her own life into spells to protect her daughter and unborn grandchild." Danny picked up his glass and downed what was left of its contents. "I saw a hero with Taylor's voice begging for death and I knew that she'd destroyed herself trying to save as many people as she could, no matter the cost." There were tears in the man's eyes "Opal? If you let Taylor find out about this-if she is dragged or consumed by her Origin-I'll never forgive you."

Another gulp "understood."

"I should destroy this," Mr. Hebert said in reference to the mystic code, "it's too big a risk-if Taylor got ahold of it..."

"Perhaps you should maybe sleep on it and reconsider that in the morning when you're sober?" Opal wracked her non-existent brain for something she could say, but all she could think off was to change the subject. "If it makes you feel better, I think I've got enough video evidence of certain brutes attempting to abuse my Princess that, the second she's finally willing to go to the authorities, well, the cretins will be _so_ out of luck."

"...Thank god," the man said after a moment, "some good news." It was a testament to Mr. Hebert's state that he didn't ask a follow-up question. Instead, he put away the bottle of liquor and went to bed. Opal sighed, thinking of the number of secrets she was keeping on behalf of the members of this household.


	17. Chapter 13

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

I knew that there would be trouble today when I walked into World Issues to find that my desk had had what looked and smelled like orange soda poured all over it. I sighed and reached into my bag. Madison Clements, the 'cute' manipulative bitch friend of Emma and Sophia, was in this class with me and had a habit of pouring crap on my desk, my possessions, and me. As I was sick of this, I started packing a towel, which I retrieved and used to clean my desk. I wish I'd had a camera, the look on Madison's face was priceless.

Honestly, there were a lot of simple solutions to some of the more irritating problems that I'd had to deal with on a day to day basis for the last year and a half that I'd just never thought of until I'd talked with Opal about my problems. For example, staying after class and lying to the teacher, claiming to have a dentist appointment the day an assignment that one has worked hard on was due and asking, pretty please, if one could email a digital copy to the teacher in order to prevent said assignment from being stolen or destroyed by one of three assholes. Then I just show up to class with a claim that my dentist had to reschedule the appointment and I'm gold-'Mr. G,' the wannabe 'Cool Teacher' who taught world issues had eaten it up, and my paper on Muramasa was safe. It'd probably only work once or twice, Gladly wasn't _that_ stupid, but I'd figure something else out in time for the next assignment.

Speak of the Devil, there was the man now. Mr. Gladly was a short, youthful-looking man, probably not that much older than we were, who could easily pass for a student if he wanted to. He was the kind of teacher who cared more about being liked than about teaching, and I hated him. He tended to give lots of group work, which was rough on students with no friends in a class full of bullies, and mostly just let the class do what they wanted… Which wouldn't be so bad if he didn't also cater to the popular kids, who were in my experience the most likely to be complete and utter jackasses to other students. Thus, I had to put up with a lot of shit in this class.

"Hello class," the man said with an obnoxious smile. "I'm so sorry that it took so long, but I've finally got your essays on your chosen foreign heroes graded. My bad, I had some business that ate up a bunch of time." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "But first, I believe a promised a reward to the writer of the best paper," he said, pulling a candy bar from his own bag. This was one of his gimmicks, offering treats or prizes to whichever person or group did the best on whatever his idea of a fun assignment was this week. I was preparing to just sit quietly when there was suddenly a bar of chocolate flying at my head, which I barely managed to catch.

"Congratulations, Taylor," Gladly said either oblivious to or ignoring my fumble. "Not only was your paper one of the best researched and best written, but I'd never even heard of Muramasa until I read your paper."

"Then how do you know that Taylor didn't make them up?" Asked one of Madison's lackies, some girl named Julia.

"Because Google exists," Gladly replied, "but good on you for being skeptical." ...He was honestly trying to please everyone, wasn't he?

He handed back the papers-I noted my 100-and class progressed as normal. Well, mostly normal. I'd been made the center of attention for a moment, and throughout the class, I could feel the stares-some disdainful, some curious, boring into me. A lot at first, but always a little throughout the entire class.

It was all I could do to keep my composure as I quickly left the class at the end of the period, my nerves were so shot. I didn't normally patrol on school nights, but I'd need to burn off some steam tonight.

 **F/KLPT**

Brockton Bay at night was peaceful up until it wasn't. Flying above the city, it looked beautiful even though it was a festering shithole at ground level. It was a paradox I'd noted several times while training, patrolling, or just taking a relaxing flight, but even that contrast was beautiful in its own way.

And there was the interruption to the peace. A loud and shrill alarm coming from a brick storefront in one of the middling neighborhoods of the city. Before the building were three large, vaguely canine monsters with ugly spikes of protruding bone and exposed muscles. They were terrifying, but I didn't let it show as I landed in front the shop, a jewelry store judging from the sign.

As I landed, four people-three of them about my age-emerged from the store in a hurry. A tall, muscular man in bike leathers and a helmet with a skull in the front, a girl with loose blonde hair and a domino mask dressed in skintight purple with a bag on her back, a thin boy dressed in effeminate, foppish attire, dark curly hair, and a face hidden by a Venetian mask and silver coronet. He carried a scepter. The final member was a girl with a brutish figure, dressed in street clothes other than the fur trimmed collar and the cheap plastic rottweiler mask. The man in the leathers cursed when he saw me.

I swung Opal and pointed her towards them. "Return the jewels to their rightful place and surrender," I said in my best heroic voice, "or _else._ "

"Look," said the boy in the Renaissance-style costume, "we've already got an effeminate guy with dark curly hair who uses a scepter with a royalty theme in this city, and I was here first. You need to… Wait, you're a chick! Sorry, forget I said anything." I resisted the urge to blast him in the crotch. That wouldn't be very heroic of me.

"Not the time for jokes, Regent!" chastised the blonde in a voice much deeper than I would have expected looking at her.

"Brutus," came the voice of Dog-Girl, "hur-"

"No," Skull-Mask interrupted with a raise of his hand. Smoke blacker than the darkest of nights was flowing out of him, obscuring parts of his body and creating the image of a floating skull in darkness. Then he ran towards me. I changed my stance, preparing for one on one combat before the darkness surged out of him and everything was blacker than pitch.

I couldn't see, I couldn't hear. I was almost afraid to breathe. Something struck my legs and knocked me off balance. I felt a shove on my chest and fell on my ass. I tried to push myself up but couldn't find the ground. Next, I felt a tug and Opal was torn from my hand. Not knowing what else to do, I started flailing around hoping to strike the bastard at least once but my fists met nothing.

Eventually, I managed to get my balance and stand to my feet, but it was still dark. I twisted around, looking for light, but all I managed to do was destroy what little sense of direction I had right now. I didn't know how long I stood there, lost in the darkness until I started feeling a strong breeze from behind me. Soon after, the darkness began to disperse. I turned just in time to see Armsmaster standing beside his motorcycle, some kind of fan at the end of a staff pointed right at the heart of the darkness.

"Princess!?" I heard Opal calling out as she flew around. "Princess, where are you!?"

"Over here!" I called to her.

She flew to me and I grasped her handle gently. "Are you alright? Did that brute hurt you?"

"I'm fine," I answered. "He knocked me down but I'm not hurt." Well, my pride was. Not even Rune had gotten away that easily.

Armsmaster approached me. "I take it that your encounter with the Undersiders didn't go as well as you'd have hoped?"

"Is that who those were?"

"If not," the armored hero began, "then one of the tinkers in this city has found a way to replicate their leader's powers."

"The guy in the skull-mask?"

"Grue. Moderately skilled physical combatant," Armsmaster explained, "Shaker/Stranger power of darkness generation. Believed to be an aficionado of classic computer games." The fan stopped and it folded into the ax head of his famous halberd. "The others are Regent, a Master who can make people trip and spasm, Tattletale, a girl who claims to be telepathic, though as of now we suspect some sort of precognition or clairvoyance, and Hellhound, a Master who can transform the dogs under her control into biological tanks."

"She doesn't control them," I corrected.

"What?"

"If she's the one I think she was," I explained, "then she was about to order one called Brutus to do something before this Grue did his thing with the darkness."

"That… Is valuable information." The more experienced hero said. That made me feel a little better.

"Do you need me for anything, or..."

"I can report this in myself," the Hero declared. I turned to leave but just before I took off he called out to me. "Princess," he said, "the Undersiders are punks and cowards who'd prefer to outwit their enemies, but usually run away from anyone they consider a genuine threat. We know that they've outwitted Lung at least once, but they chose to run from you. In your shoes, I'd take it as a compliment."

He said nothing else and I didn't respond, but I did smile a little bit as I flew away.

 **F/KLPT**

"So, that was certainly a something," Brian said as we walked out of the theater. We'd managed to get together and catch the movie he'd had to cancel on last weekend.

"That it was," I answered half-heartedly, "a lot of swear words in that one."

"And a lot of sex jokes that weren't hinted at in the trailer," Brian added.

"And that 'joke' conflating all Siberian people to _The_ Siberian?" I questioned.

"Terrible taste."

Then we both started laughing. "Do you think," I asked between huffs, "do you think they made it that bad on purpose?"

"I don't think you can do that on purpose," Brian answered.

I nodded and we began walking, heading towards the bus station. A few moments later, as we passed an alley, I heard a somewhat familiar voice say "You!"

I turned and saw a blonde girl of around my age, one who was a little bit familiar. "Excuse me?"

"Hebe," she said, "race traitor. Close enough." She said. "I knew you looked familiar."

Brian turned to face her too. He cracked his knuckles and took a combat stance. "I think you should leave."

It clicked for me, who this was, just as she reached into her pocket and pulled out some gravel. "Brian, get back. She's a cape." The gravel in Rune's hands began to levitate and twist around itself. I did a quick look around to see if anyone else was nearby or else could see me, in case I needed to trance, and reached for my own pocket.

"Oh, this is adorable," Rune said with an ironic smile. "I take it that your boy doesn't know, Princess?" Brian's eye twitched.

"Brian," I said, "down the alley. And stand back."

"What?"

"Now!" I jumped and ran to the chainlink fence halfway down the long alleyway and turned in time to see that Brian had joined me. "And now we're cornered, now what?"

Rune stepped into the opening of the alleyway just in time for me to draw a card and beckon Opal to come out of hiding. "Stand back." I slapped the card onto Opal and shouted: "Include: Lancer!"

The sudden appearance of a massive red spear made Brian step back just enough that I could spin Gae Bolg Alternative and twirl it around to point at Rune. "Back off," I said with all the command I could muster, "I won't make the same mistake twice." I left her to guess at what the mistake was, the last time we fought.

She smiled again, then laughed, "keep an eye on him. I doubt all the _Celtic magic_ in the world can keep him safe if you're not there."

And then she pocketed her gravel and walked away. Brian and I were both silent for a moment, then he ran to the mouth of the alleyway and checked the direction she'd gone.

"She's gone," he said. Another pause. "Well, that happened."

"Yeah." I ejected the card from Opal and let her fly free. "I guess I've got some explaining to do?"

"I already knew that you were a cape," Brian said. "My sister has no poker face," he explained, "and if you weren't it would be a major coincidence that she got found by a hero not long after I told you she was missing." It was then that I decided that I really needed to work on my subtlety.

"Oh… Uh, there's some stuff I can do," I began, "that can make a dwelling safer. Harder to find if you mean harm, harder to get into uninvited. I've already done it to my house and Lisa's apartment, so if you'd like…?"

"I'm not worried about her," he said reassuringly, "but if it's got you that worried then I don't see the harm. Just give me a few days to clean up first." I think he was trying to make a single guy apartment joke, but that stereotype didn't really fit with what I know of him.

I was about to answer him when Opal suddenly flew up to him. "Greetings, Brian. I am Magical Opal, and it's so nice to properly meet you."

"Likewise," Brian answered in a tone that told me that he had no idea how to respond and was just trying to be polite.

Opal hummed. "You will behave in a gentlemanly manner and take proper care of my Princess or there will be a reckoning so severe that-"

"Opal!" I shouted. "Hair. Now."

Opal stopped in her tracks, the flew back and hid in my hair without another word.

"I'm sorry about her," I explained, "she doesn't always get proper behavior." I heard her mumble about true properness.

"It's okay," he said, "believe it or not it's not the strangest or most severe threat I've ever gotten. We have to hurry," he said changing subjects, "or you're going to miss your bus."

As we started again towards the bus stop, he turned to me and asked: "So, Princess, huh?"

I felt the heat rising in my face as I mumbled, "it's a long story."

 **F/KLPT**

I was in the middle of a routine patrol. There was a fire in the distance, deep in the Docks, but I'd seen a fire engine and PRT vans heading that way and I wasn't sure that anything I could do would help so I instead went towards a more middling region of town. That's when I saw them.

The Undersiders were tearing off into the night on the backs of Hellhounds monsters. Once more, Tattletale was carrying something but from this high up I couldn't see what, and they were heading back towards the docks. None of them were looking up. It took me only a moment to decide to follow them, get them when their guard was down, then take them out and bring them in.

Ten minutes later, just as I was about to make my move, I noticed a flash of metallic scales down an alleyway in the middle of the docks, with red-and-green-clad figures following it. A moment later, Lung burst through a pile of garbage that had been blocking off the alley just as the Undersiders passed it. The dragon-like man took one look at the teenage villains and shoved one of the monster-dogs, knocking all three and the four riders to the ground.

This was bad. The Undersiders were crooks, but they were still just kids. Lung was a killer and a sex-slaver. If they couldn't get away from this… I leveled Opal towards Lung, planning to blast him just hard enough to draw his attention and give the Undersiders a chance to escape when Lung suddenly twisted around.

I heard it a moment after he did, the engine of a motorcycle. I looked to where Lung was looking just in time to see a shimmer and for Armsmaster to near literally appear out of nowhere. He did something with his wrists on the handles, and twin gouts of fire erupted from the back, causing the armored hero and his metal steed to at least double in speed. He suddenly pulled up causing the front and then the rear wheel to lift off from the ground, allowing Armsmaster to slam the front wheel into Lung and send the man flying a good ten feet through the air. Lung landed in a heap, and Armsmaster landed safely, turned around on a dime, and drove back to the Undersiders, who were climbing back up. He said something that I didn't catch, Tattletale nodded, and they all climbed back on their dogs and got the hell out of Dodge. Armsmaster then turned back to face Lung, paying no mind to the five armed Bad Boyz who'd watched the whole thing like deer caught in headlights.

"Opal," I asked, "did you see that?"

"I did indeed."

"That was the coolest thing I've ever seen."

Opal grumbled.

Lung pushed himself back up and roared. Armsmaster drew his halberd and revved his engine, and then the most famous hero and most infamous villain of Brockton Bay charged each other. The hero and villain engaged back and forth, Lung with his strength and might and Armsmaster with his cunning and gadgets. I was totally engaged in the fight below me and I knew that I'd never forget it as Lung and Armsmaster traded blows. For now, they seemed evenly matched-The hero would produce a taser but Lung's scales would thicken to protect him from the shock. Lung would burst into flames but Armsmaster would produce con-foam or some kind of flame retardant to extinguish the flames and slow Lung down, only for the dragon to escape confinement with a feat of strength.

Finally, Armsmaster managed to strike a decisive blow, cleaving through Lung's scales and producing what, from my vantage, looked to be a syringe from inside his Halberd. He made to jab it into Lung, but suddenly the leader of the Bad Boyz smacked the weapon away with enough force to throw it from Armsmaster's hands. The hero was clearly taken aback by this turn of events, which gave Lung enough time to send him flying with a fiery uppercut.

Lung seemed to shrink somewhat, and he began to laugh, a deep rumbling laugh that I could hear even from my vantage point. He began to slowly walk toward the downed hero. I was flying towards them before I'd even thought about it.

I grasped Opal with both hands and swung her, sending a crescent of mana to strike Lung's back.

"Ooh da fuh-uck dawes!?" He roared, his words apparently distorted by his transformation.

"Up here!" I called out, trying to draw his attention from Armsmaster long enough for the elder hero to get back up.

Lung turned to face me, his face scaled and almost catlike. Then he shrank, becoming noticeably more humanoid. I wasn't sure how to feel about that. "Why," he asked in a confused monotone, "am I being attacked by a high-class whore?" Opal grumbled.

Armsmaster was still down, I had to keep Lung's attention. He wasn't fighting yet, which was good, but… I steeled my nerves. The only thing I could think of was something that Opal had been pressuring me to do but that I'd refused until now.

"I'm no prostitute!" I shouted in my best approximation of a confident noblewoman's tones. " _I_ , am a Hero of Justice! A cute wielder of the Second Sorcery, empowered by the Kaleidoscope to defeat villains likes you!" I took a combative pose, Opal pointed square at Lung's chest, and tried to ignore the dirty feeling crawling down my spine and keep the blood from rushing from my face. "Magical Girl Kaleid Liner Prisma-"

"Oh God, not this shit!" Lung interrupted. "You!" he said, gesturing to the five armed men and snapping them from the shock they'd been in. "Whichever one of you kills Sally the Witch here gets their pick of the new whores." The Bad Boyz looked at me. A flash of recognition crossed one of their faces and he dropped his weapon, a double-barreled shotgun, screamed, and ran off. "As does whoever tracks down and kills that coward when we're done here," Lung finished in a deadpan. I noted that the wounds from his fight with Armsmaster had already healed.

The four remaining gangsters aimed their weapons at me just in time to take a mana ball each to the gut. Each of them fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of them, and dropped their own weapons. Lung took a second look at me as I landed.

"It's gonna take more than your bargain barrel recruits to stop me, Lung," I said with my voice filled with confidence that I didn't have. To be honest, I was terrified at the prospect of fighting Lung.

Armsmaster had managed to push himself up. "Princess," he called out to me, "get out of here. Lung's too much for you to handle."

Lung responded by twisting around and launching a blast of fire at Armsmaster. I raised Opal and with a thought, a star-shaped barrier of my Mana appeared before the armored man to intercept the attack.

I reached for my card holster. "I'm sorry Armsmaster, but I can't just leave a fellow hero to die." I withdrew a card and held it out. "Class Card Saber Install: Phantasm Summon!"

I could have changed faster, but the full display with the magic circles and the eruptions of blue mana drew a hell of a lot of attention and would keep Lung's eyes on me, not Armsmaster. The mana cleared and I stood there in a clean, shining and shimmering silver-white version of the banded armor that the manifested Saber wore, with only the cloth under armor still black, and with gold knee pads and accents. Well, it wasn't quite the same. Saber had a helmet, while my head was adorned with a simple silver circlet. He also didn't have an exposed midriff, or a billowing blue and gold-trim cape coming out from his pauldrons. I tightly gripped the blue hilt of my sword. Where Saber's version had been a solid black, mine was gold and silver-white with designs in blue. I held the blade up in the proper two-handed stance of a greatsword wielder and glared at the dragon-like man before me, as though telling him to bring it even if I wished he wouldn't.

"Install?" He questioned. "I'm sorry, but I think you mean 'Honey Flash.' " Lung laughed again. "But if you're so eager to die here, little girl, I'll just have to oblige you." Lung charged at me, and I acted on instinct.

The next I knew, our positions had been reversed. He was where I'd been standing, I was in front of Armsmaster, and we'd each turned to face each other. Or rather, I faced Lung. The leader of the Azn Bad Boyz was too busy studying the bleeding slash I'd effortlessly carved into his armored chest.

"How?" he questioned after a moment, confusion and anger evidence in his voice. Clearly, he wasn't happy about the damage I'd inflicted.

"You can't sense it?" I asked, for once tonight feeling the confidence with which I spoke. "This weapon is Arondight, the blade of Sir Lancelot du Lac." I smiled. "One of the most powerful Holy Swords in existence surpassed only by King Arthur's own Excalibur. The Greatest and Most Noble of the Knights of the Round Table wielded this weapon on many adventures, but one legend, in particular, is important here. To answer your question," I said as I swung the sword and pointed the sharp tip directly at Lung's heart, "this is the sword of a Dragon Slayer!"


	18. Chapter 14

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

Lung responded to my claim of wielding a dragon-slaying sword with a deep, rumbling laugh. "If you say so, Sailor Weeb."

I didn't quite understand what he meant, but Opal, in the form of my sword, began babbling something in outrage, of which I made out "uniform," "Ruby's master," and "Onee-sama."

I rolled my eyes. "Armsmaster, are you alright?"

"Some of the servos in my armor are damaged," he stated clinically. "I'm mostly unharmed, but until the repair protocol kicks in I'm dead weight. And you need to get out of here, Lung is too dangerous."

I didn't look back at Armsmaster as I replied, "I'm not just going to leave you alone while you're-" Lung lunged for me, clawed hand extended, then slashed down, and I parried with speed that I didn't know I was capable of. Arondight went snicker-snack, and Lung's hand was cleanly cut from his wrist. "Helpless," I finished. "Also, I'm pretty sure I can take him." Lung took a moment to stare at his stump, and Saber was officially my new favorite card.

Armsmaster said something in response, but I couldn't hear him over Lung's shout: "Ooh da fug awr ooh!?"

"Oh," I said as I raised my sword to block an attack from Lung's good hand, "the name's Princess." I took one hand off my blade and socked Lung right in his scaley cat-face to punctuate my introduction.

Lung half-screamed-half-roared and burst into flames. He tried to bowl be over, but with Saber's strength I was able to stand my ground and Arondight's edge coming dangerously close to Lung's heart made him change his mind and retreat much further up the street.

I was about to charge him, but just as I made my first step he shot a blast of flame at me. A swing of my sword disrupted it… somehow, but if Lung wanted to play the range game that made things a lot more difficult. Unless… I eyed the firearms that Lung's thugs had dropped. Two Tommy guns, what looked like an old hunting rifle, and something military looking with a long belt, and that wasn't counting the shotgun that the runner had dropped.

That'd do. I leaped and rolled in the air to avoid a gout of fire that had been fired at my feet, sheathed my sword in mid-air, hit the ground rolling, grabbed the five firearms and tumbled into a steady crouch, three guns under my arms and a Tommy in each had aimed dead at Lung. The weapons glowed with a warm light and brilliant streaks of gold crisscrossed through them.

"Knight of Owner!" I heard myself declare as I pulled both triggers and unleashed a storm of hot lead on the Bay's resident dragon. The guns roared like the t-rex in a movie I'd seen and the bullets exploded on contact with Lung. Soon, however, came the empty click of expended clips… or magazines? Honestly, they hadn't exactly covered the difference that well in my gun safety class.

The smoke cleared, revealing a much large Lung with much thicker scales hunching over and snorting from a deformed x-shape that I assumed to have been his mouth and nose grotesquely merged together. His arms and hands, plural, touched the group and two long spines had emerged from his back. There were holes and dents all over his body and I think I destroyed his pants or something, but the damage I'd done was quickly mending. **AHAOUH!?** he roared. How?

"Because in this form, kicking your ass is as natural as breathing no matter what weapon I do it with." Did I just say that? Oh my God I just said that. This is so awesome.

"Princess, language." Damn it, Opal.

Lung roared again, no words. He swelled up, slightly but noticeably, and the spines on his back started to unfold or unfurl and-Oh fuck, he had wings. If he took to the air, I'd have to Uninstall or switch cards and then I'd lose my advantage.

So I stood straight and threw the Tommy guns at Lung, one striking him in the head, and one hitting him in the crotch. He grunted in annoyance, but it gave me time to switch to the belt-fed gun, glowing as the Tommies had, which I turned on Lung's half-formed wings. Three pulses each chipped through his wings and nipped his aspirations of flight in the bud. I turned the firearm next on one of Lung's knees and finished the belt before throwing the gun like a spear and impaling the other.

Both of his knees crippled, Lung almost collapsed but was able to support himself with just his arms. He pulled the gun from his knee, burst into flames once more, and then started dragging his way to me with frightening speed.

I was burning up. Knight of Owner took some serious mana and I could feel my circuits beginning to strain. But I couldn't give up, so with nothing else to do I aimed the rifle at Lung's chest and fired.

With a burst like a rocket, the bullet soared from the barrel and punched clean through Lung's scales. Blood gushed out, but it soon stopped and burned away in the flames. I changed my target, aiming a little bit lower, and put four bullets in his belly before the hunting rifle clicked, empty. Despite the holes I'd blown in his body, he didn't slow down.

Thunder cracked loudly in the sky, and out of a clear night came a sudden wall of falling water. Under normal circumstances, I'd curse my sudden loss of visibility, but the way the wind was blowing it didn't hamper me that much. In fact, getting suddenly drenched helped to cool the burning ache building in my body and, as a bonus, dulled Lung's flames quite a bit. The bad news was that his legs had regenerated and he suddenly doubled, if not tripled, in speed by pushing off from the ground into a proper sprint…

...And then he almost immediately slipped in a puddle that hadn't been there seconds before and falling, hitting the ground deformed face first and skidding the rest of the way to land at my feet.

He roared in frustration and pushed himself up, to be met by a shotgun, an old fashion double barrel, pointed square at him.

"Boom," I said, and pulled both triggers. The shotgun let out a sound that rivaled Lung's own fierce cry and a rather than a spray of hot lead a gout of plasma erupted forth and consumed Lung before depositing him, badly burned, at the far end of the street. I tossed the spent shotgun and rifle at him, both metal tubes spinning fest and striking him where his wings were just now beginning to reform and breaking them clean off.

I drew Arondight and prepared to charge Lung when I felt something in my spatial awareness. I stepped left, turned, and caught Armsmaster's Halberd in mid-air. Wide-eyed, I looked back to him.

He'd managed to stand at some point "If you weren't bluffing earlier," he said gruffly, "then you should be able to use that to bring him down without killing him." He grunted after, which made me think he might have been lying about not being hurt earlier.

The Halberd was a polearm, so I had to short-shaft it to use it and Arondight at the same time. With Armsmaster's famed Tinker-Tech weapon in one hand and a Legendary Holy sword in the other, I, with the power and clad in the armor of a fearless knight, charged down a dragon for a battle in the rain, a clap of thunder and fork of lightning underscoring what was essentially the single most awesome moment of my life.

Lung roared and braced himself to meet my charge. I didn't give him the chance to start running, however, and pointed the Halberd at him. I don't know if it was because it was tinker-tech, because it was because Knight of Owner turned it into a Noble Phantasm, or both, but the weapon responded to my thoughts and reconfigured itself to launch a flare that soared out like a heating seeking missile, knocking Lung upside the head before making a sharp turn straight up and exploding, forming a cross of white flame high in the skies above us for several moments.

Being hit by a flare hadn't actually done much, if any damage to Lung, but it did seem to take him by surprise enough for me to close the gap enough to use another of The Halberd's gadgets: The grappling hook! Well, okay, in this case, it wasn't so much a hook as it was a claw, but still. The point was that a heavy weighted metal thing on a strong and durable cord flew past Lung and then circled back around him several times, binding him tightly.

And then, I pulled back on The Halberd and set the cord to retract at top speed, sending the Dragon-like brute spinning back like a top. He landed and began to push himself back up just as I reached him. My heart was beating like a snare drum and I could feel the sweat forming on my brow. Lung stood to his feet just in time to have Arondight slashed across his massive, armor-plated pecs.

I didn't want to give him the chance to fight back, and so I became a flurry of blows. Slashing with Arondight, chopping with the Halberd's ax-head and striking with the shaft. I twisted and danced around him, whirling like a dervish and occasionally throwing my elbows, knees, and feet into the mix. Hell, I even headbutted once. However, despite how easily my blades cleaved through his scales and the speed at which I struck him, it seemed that he had escalated to a point that I couldn't deal damage to him faster than he could regenerate it and his scales got thicker and his muscles bulkier with every blow I struck.

After a few moments under my assault, Lung gained an equilibrium of sorts and exploded into flames. He shoved me, knocking me several feet back, and causing me to land on my ass and drop my weapons. And then, without a word, he hurled a massive ball of flame at me.

I didn't think. I just grabbed The Halberd and pointed it at the incoming projectile. Again somehow reacting to my thoughts, the ax-head unfolded into a fan-blade and started spinning at impossibly rapid speeds. The fireball was blown out, as were the flames clinging to Lung's massive body. That alone was impressive, but I'd never counted on him beginning to rise from the ground. There was just enough time for Lung's eyes to bug out in a cartoonish manner before he was sent spinning into the sky and vanished behind the storm clouds.

The fight wasn't over yet, however. Every so often there would be a crack of thunder and I'd see Lung, still in the sky, be illuminated by the lightning. I think he got struck by it once or twice. But soon he tore through the cloud barrier. If I had to guess, he was twelve feet from head to toe and that was with him hunched over. A monstrous split face with a mouth full of fangs, claws like spears, and the two massive wings that he was soaring on. Lung was well and truly a dragon now, and with a roar, he flew right at me.

I had to end it now. I threw the Halberd straight in the air, placed both hands on Arondight, and began pouring every scrap of mana I had left into it. My circuits burned in protest, but I paid them no mind as my sword began to glow a bright blue.

Lung was getting closer. Three: I braced myself. Two: My sword held as much mana as it could hold. One.

I jumped.

"Arondight!" I shouted as I leaped higher into the air than I was sure I could have a few moments ago. I raised the so-named sword high above my head and when I met Lung… "Overload!" I brought it down on his shoulder as hard as I could and let out all the power that was building within. The blade easily cleaved through the Dragon's flesh and then both he and I were engulfed in blue light…

…

...The next thing I knew, the rain had stopped and I was standing back on the asphalt of the street, Lung, human once again, naked, and missing his right arm at the burned shoulder was kneeling before me and breathing heavily. "What," he said between pained breaths, "the _fuck_... are you?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but a pained wheeze came out first. I huffed. "I'm just a girl," I said hoarsely, "who's a hero for fun."

The Asian giant had such a look of rage on his face at my answer. He tried to stand, but just as he managed to get to his feet, The Halberd fell from the sky and landed on him, the syringe somehow deployed, and the full payload of Tinker-Tech tranquilizers was injected into his system. At that moment, I vowed to tell anyone who'd asked that I did that on purpose.

'Damn… You," Lung cursed, and then he fell to his knees as the drug-induced sleep took him. I reclaimed The Halberd and checked to make sure that Lung was still breathing, but then I was startled by the sound of someone slowly clapping.

I spun around, maybe too quickly, and saw that at some point, backup had arrived. Velocity was helping to support Armsmaster, while Miss Militia, Assault, Battery, Dauntless, and Triumph were all staring at me. Well, most of them were. Assault was clapping. The others turned to him.

"What?" was his only response. I couldn't see from here, but apparently, Miss Militia's gaze conveyed some meaning to him because he said again "tell me I'm wrong." Battery facepalmed.

...I'd just defeated Lung almost single-handedly while fighting in a spontaneous thunderstorm, in front of what was basically the entire local protectorate team and one of them was applauding me. I might have saved Armsmaster's life while wielding his Halberd. I looked down at The weapon in my hands and suddenly gripped it tight, afraid I'd drop and break it. Oh… Oh, My God, I can't believe I just did that, I… this was…

"Princess?"

'Huh?" I must have spaced out for a second because Armsmaster was standing in front of me.

"I asked for my halberd back."

"Oh," I said, and reverently held it up for him to take.

"Now, there's just one question remaining," he said, "are you going to want to take full credit for Lung's defeat?"

"What?"

"There's a risk, however small," Armsmaster explained, "that Oni Lee might try to retaliate against the Hero or Heroes who managed to take Lung out. Given what we discussed on The Rig, it wouldn't be too difficult for him to find you if he put in enough effort. I assume that you've done something to mitigate that risk?" I nodded. "Regardless..." he continued, "honestly, it would be impossible to completely cover up your involvement here. Between the modifications to my flare and the rather conspicuous effect of your Noble Phantasm, this fight had all the signs of a Princess sighting." I wasn't sure how to feel about him saying it like that, "but, for your safety, it would be possible to get this spun as a collaborative effort and make uninvolved parties think that this was a Protectorate take down that you assisted with and draw any of Lee's ire down on the Protectorate."

"And the reward could be wired to you under the table," Assault chimed in.

I blinked. "Reward?"

Armsmaster groaned. "We don't exactly like letting this information spread around," he said reluctantly, "because when it comes to capes like Lung, stupid people could go rushing into danger, or there could be confusion with Kill Order bounties or the like, but the basic idea is that, rarely, for capes like Lung who are very dangerous and have been active in multiple locations, sometimes… Well, not a bounty per se, but rewards of one type or another will be posted for assisting in their capture or information leading to an arrest. It's mostly through organizations like Crime Stoppers or Inter-Para, but every so often a wealthy relative of a victim will offer something."

"And taking Lung down entitles me to that?"

"Maybe," Armsmaster replied, "it really only applies to civilians and independent heroes, so I haven't looked the exact rules regarding it, but I do think there's a pretty penny saved up in Lung's case. You'd have to come down to HQ and fill some things out, if you are, however. Now, if you could answer my question?"

I looked down at Lung on the ground in a drug-fueled torpor, to the friend/Holy Sword at my side, then back to Armsmaster. "I want my full share of credit on this, sir." I doubted that Oni Lee could get past the wards and runes I'd installed on the house, and I could double up Lisa's and Brian's apartments just in case the next time I did maintenance.

"So be it," Armsmaster said. He was about to say something else, but I suddenly collapsed and didn't catch it.

After landing on my butt for the second time tonight, the Saber card was ejected from me and I was suddenly intimately aware of every last bit of heat, soreness, and exhaustion that had built up in me during the fight.

"Princess!" Opal called as she flew to my side. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I said, "I just… I overdid it a little."

"Good," Opal said. "Now, I didn't want to say this in the middle of the fight and distract you, but..." I winced as she bopped me on the head. "Do you have any idea how reckless what you just did was!?"

"Huh?"

"You're feeling very sore right now, right?" She asked, "exhausted? Very, very hot?" I nodded. "That's because you overstressed your magic circuits. Did you notice that they were glowing in the visible spectrum?" I shook my head. "They were, your whole body was covered in blue lines. That is _not_ supposed to happen with natural circuits! Especially with that last attack, you could have burned out your circuits completely. As it is, there is some serious, but thankfully not irreparable, strain and some inflammation to the surrounding tissues that I won't be able to safely repair until you've rested your circuits for at least twenty-four hours."

"Wait, what?" did that mean…

"No flying, no installs, no magecraft, no strenuous activity… Honestly, it's not doing any further harm but every minute you spend in-trance delays your recovery by the same amount." I gulped. "And it goes without saying that you will not be Installing the Saber Card outside of life or death emergencies until I say it's okay." I nodded. "Honestly," she muttered, "you should have just run the brute through as soon as you Installed."

"Heroes aren't supposed to kill except in-"

"Princess," Opal interrupted, "I do not _care_. Criminal scum and monstrous cretins are a dime a dozen. You are irreplaceable."

"Sorry."

Opal sighed. "It's alright. Now you," she said with a gesture towards Armsmaster, "Master of Arms. Please be a gentleman and lend my Princess a hand up."

Armsmaster startled and said "of course" before lending me his hand and pulling me up. Honestly, I wasn't that worn out, I could probably have gotten up on my own, but I didn't want to argue with Opal after the earful I'd just gotten.

"Princess," Armsmaster said, "does your father know that you're out here?"

"Uh, yeah," I said after a moment, "He knows I'm a Cape and this is one of my regular patrol nights."

"That's good," he replied, "because you're going to have to call him when we get to PRT Headquarters. There's some paperwork you'll have to fill out if you want to claim full credit for Lung's capture and since you're a minor he'll need to witness it."

"Okay," I said… Oh shit. I was going to be so grounded when Dad found out I'd fought Lung


	19. Chapter 15

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

"...And you need to tell the woman at the desk that, and I quote," I said as I read the sheet I was given, " 'I'd like to report a crime: Bonesaw is selling counterfeit Girl Scout cookies while dressed like the Easter Bunny.' "

" _...Seriously?_ " Dad asked on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, seriously," I answered, "apparently it's some kind of security thing. Passwords that won't get said by accident."

" _Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can,_ " he said, " _and we'll be having words about what you did tonight later._ "

"Of course," I said with a fake grin that he couldn't even see.

He hung up first, and I gave the director her phone back. "You know," Opal said, "it's a bit odd that we're sitting here in the director's office with this Director and the Master of arms just to be signing some paperwork?"

I blinked. Wow, I must have been slipping because I walked right into a possible trap without noticing.

"It's nothing at all insidious," said the director, a portly woman who seemed to have seen better days, "it's just that we've got some questions for you and this is the best time to ask you."

"Yes," Opal answered for me, "and it's not at all suspicious that you've decided this was the best time when my Princess was within your building and unable to defend herself if need be."

"I don't like your implications," the director said as she leaned over and glared at the wand in my hand.

"And I don't like that my princess was brought into a facility under false pretenses while she's vulnerable," Opal replied with a stern glare.

The director blinked. "I am arguing with a piece of Tinker Tech. Princess," she said turning back to me, "control your device."

"I didn't make her," I explained, "and she's her own person: I can't control her any more than I can control you. I will, however, ask her to _be nice_ and not antagonize the people in charge of heroes in this city." Opal harrumphed. "Now… I'm a bit apprehensive, but I'm willing to listen to whatever questions you have."

Director Piggot was silent for a moment. "Why did you engage with Lung this evening?"

"I saw the Undersiders fleeing a crime scene and pursued," I said in the best approximation of proper law enforcement talk. "Then Lung just sort of appeared out of an alley, saw them and attacked. I'd have gotten involved then, but Armsmaster was there soon after and saved them." I briefly thought back to Armsmaster basically kicking Lung in the face with his motorcycle. "But then Lung got a lucky shot, Armsmaster looked like he was in trouble. I was there, I had to help, so-"

"What do you mean you 'had to?' " the director asked.

"Someone was in trouble," I said. "I helped. It's what heroes do… right?" I finished, maybe a little less confidently than I started. The director didn't reply. "I mean, the Undersiders are criminals, but Lung would have killed them and Armsmaster didn't hesitate to jump in and save them." Armsmaster made some kind of grunt I couldn't make out. "I mean, I'm doing this for fun but what kind of hero would I be if I just floated there and watched a villain kill a fellow hero while he was helpless."

The director hmmed. "Alright then," she said, "I think Armsmaster should ask the next question."

I leaned back and turned to face the armored hero. From what I could see of his face, he seemed to be thinking carefully. "Have you thought about the offer to join the Wards I made on the Rig the night we collected your Caster Card?"

I tried very hard not to groan. "Yeah." I waited for a moment but neither of them responded. "And, no, I'm not interested in joining the Wards."

"That's a shame," the director said, "because you're practically the archetypical example of why the Wards were created."

"Could you explain what you mean by that?" Opal asked suspiciously.

"Well, Princess," the woman said to me and not Opal, "you fit the profile, for lack of a better term, of the ideal Ward candidate," she went on, "I'll be blunt: We know who you are, we did some research into you and your situation when you destroyed that ship. You're an isolated teenager who received a great deal of power." My stomach churned at the unexpected intrusion of my school life into my hero career. "You _clearly_ have good intentions, but you've made some mistakes and could use guidance. In the Wards program, you can learn from more experienced heroes and avoid incidents like dropping satellites on the homes of Boston judges."

My stomach clenched at the reminder of what I'd done. "Excuse me, but the Master of Arms said that my Princess would face no consequence for that due to the corrupt nature of the judge in question and the accidental nature of the offense."

"True," the director admitted, "but it's still an incident that we'd prefer not repeated. And honestly, I'm not sure why a young heroine would turn down a steady paycheck and a support network."

"How much?" Opal asked while I sank into my chair.

"Standard pay is a minimum wage for the first year," the director explained, "double that afterward, potentially adjusted to take care of housing costs or unique special skills, as well as a fifty thousand per year trust fund that she'll receive when she graduates from the program."

"...How much does the Master of Arms make?" Opal questioned next.

"There's no trust fund," the Armsmaster interjected, "but starting pay for the Protectorate is currently $78,780 USD for the first year and $112,810 USD per year for every year afterward, again modified based on special skills or housing costs."

Opal hmmed. "I noticed a gift shop downstairs," she began inquisitively. "I spotted a poster of a young girl in tights and armor on one of the walls, and take her to be one of these Wards. Would my Princess receive her fair share of the profit made from the exploitation of her image?"

Director Piggot grimaced. "No. The PRT owns the image and merchandise rights of all Wards. She'd be able to establish a new image, but-"

"Yeah, no," Opal interrupted. "I did not design my Princess's costume and we did not collect the Class Cards so that you could make a profit on photos and action figures and leave my Princess with not even the identity we've crafted together to her name, only less than half of what the so-called more-experienced heroes are getting despite facing the same dangers and clearly outclassing them based on tonight's example."

"Look, we-"

"I said we're done discussing this," Opal interrupted again. "My Princess said no and nothing you've said seems like an incentive for her to change her mind."

The Director smiled. "I'd like to hear Princess's opinion on that."

I sank into my chair and mumbled my answer.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I said no," I said aloud. "I'm still not interested."

"If Opal's concerns are the problem," Armsmaster began, "well, you're basically built for marketing. Multiple interchangeable themes and costumes-Fairy Princess, Knight in Shining Armor, Mythological Hero, Old West Sharpshooter-taken from all over the world and tied together by a shared legend, literature and magic theme." I wasn't looking at him so I couldn't see what he was doing, but he sighed and hesitated for a moment. "And I have to imagine that your popularity will explode when people catch word that you've almost single-handedly defeated Lung without suffering a scratch. With the sheer amount of revenue your merchandise is likely to generate, it would be more than reasonable if you wished to retain ownership of your image and receive a fair portion of that revenue."

Opal harrumphed. "The same pay as one of the full-fledged adult heroes, divided between salary and trust fund, full ownership of our image, identity, and all attached properties, and at least 50% of her merchandise revenue split up between her salary and trust proportionate to her base salary, _then_ her pay is adjusted based on her considerable skill and power." She cleared her non-existent throat. "And you have to address her as 'Majesty,' because she deserves to be treated like a real Princess."

I blushed at Opal's compliment, but muttered that "I still don't want to be a Ward."

"That's the bare minimum before _I'll_ even consider talking with my Princess in private about maybe joining these Wards," Opal finished.

"That's hardly reasonable," the director said with gritted teeth.

"I don't care," I mumbled again, "because I don't want to be a Ward."

"It seems plenty reasonable to me," Opal replied to the director, "and can you really fault me for acting in the best interests of my Princess? Now, why are you so insistent that my Princess join?"

"It's not that we're insistent," Armsmaster corrected, "as much as we want her to know that she's welcome here and that we can be flexible to accommodate her needs."

"And it would be a shame to see her squander her potential," the Director added, "which she might without the resources we can offer her."

Armsmaster grunted. "I'll put it as simply as I can, in terms of the threat ratings, a scale that classifies powers and gives a rough estimate of how dangerous they are to a squad of trained anti-parahuman fighters, Princess is categorized as Trump 10 as of tonight." I went wide-eyed for a second. Barring absurd cases like Eidolon or the Endbringers, 10 was as high as ratings could go, and Trump was one of the stronger and more versatile power types. "And if her default form, what I've seen of Caster, and Saber are typical of all of her forms, each individual form would have high ratings in at least two other categories. Simply, Princess has the potential to be on the same level as the Triumvirate or Hero, rest his soul," the Tinker said in total seriousness. "The world is growing darker every day. We _need_ more heroes on their level." I saw him from the corner of my eye. He was kneeling next to me now. "It's ultimately your choice, Princess, but maybe consider that Wards Program can help you on your way to being the hero you were meant to be."

At first, the thought of standing there amongst the greatest heroes in the world… Part of me longed for it. Being able to save whole cities at once or maybe even drive off an Endbringer before Scion arrived, being a figure of inspiration nationally or even worldwide… But… They'd never stop trying to recruit me if I was actually that valuable. My blood started to boil. "No," I said as clearly as I could. "I don't want to be a Ward."

"Are you-"

"I said no!" I stood and shouted. "The absolute last thing I need in my life is to be stuck with more teenage drama, more cliques, and in general just more _bullshit_! I'd rather keep my freedom and do things my way instead of following rules made by people who say they'll do one thing but never follow through! I'm sick of being the isolated loner, I'm sick of people making decisions without consulting me"

"Princess..." Opal began.

"Don't you start!" I said, breathing heavily, "the, that stuff earlier. Negotiations about payment… That's exactly what I'm talking about! I said no. I said it more than once, but you all just kept talking like I wasn't even there! You should know better, Opal."

Opal deflated. "...Princess," she said in a heartbroken tone.

"I just wish that people would-gah!" I collapsed to the floor. Suddenly, it was like all of my nerves were on fire. For a second everything went white, but then it passed and I was just as sore as I'd been immediately after beating Lung. Opal was curled tightly around my upper arm. "What," I huffed, "what happened?"

"Your mana spiked in response to your emotions," Opal explained in the tone of an overly concerned mother. "It happens from time to time in mages, particularly those with prodigiously large reserves of power. Normally it's harmless but with your circuits so inflamed..."

"...Alright," the director said after a moment, "we'll drop the subject, as it is quite apparently very touchy for you. However," she continued, "you seem to have a… preconception about the program and are judging it based on this without having experienced it yourself. Maybe, just maybe, you should talk to a few of the Wards and get an informed opinion?"

"Maybe," I said, the blood rushing to my face. After my little outburst, I was suddenly very aware of the two pairs of eyes on me. Knowing my luck, I'd just lost every scrap of respect I'd earned from the PRT because I couldn't keep things bottled up where they'd belonged and dumped years worth of bad feelings on people who had nothing to do with it. I hadn't even realized I was sizing up the door until I'd stood up.

"Perhaps you'd like to do so now," she said. Not a suggestion or order but an option. "Vista often sleeps on base, Aegis prefers to stay here on weekends, and I think that Kid Win is here Tinkering. Shadow Stalker has been known to come in in the middle of the night on occasion, as well. You could talk to them, and we can call you back here when your father arrives."

"Yeah," I said lamely. I didn't really want to, but I needed to regain my composure and for that, I needed to be anywhere but here.

Armsmaster escorted me down to Wards HQ in awkward silence. The director was making a call but I wasn't sure if I should be concerned about that. The elevator ride seemed slower than it had going up to the Director's office.

"...Princess," Opal said hesitantly, "I'm sorry. About earlier."

"It's fine," I said, "just, just don't..."

Opal gave my arm a squeeze. "There's something we need to talk about later when we get home. Not something bad, but… Just something I've realized that I should tell you."

"Tell me now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Opal leaned up and whispered in my ear. "I've been recording your interactions with those cretins. If and when you decide to do anything about them, you have all the evidence you'll need."

I nodded but said nothing. Opal seemed to wilt a little.

When we got to Wards HQ, he pushed a button by the door and an alarm went off. I startled for a second, but he raised a hand. "It's just to let the people inside know that they need to have masks on."

I grunted my acknowledgment. After a moment, the door opened and we entered.

I found three people to greet us: Aegis, decked head to toe in almost solid red with a shield upon his chest, standing at attention, Vista, with her visor, sculpted breastplate, and green squiggled skirt… which honestly looked like she'd changed into it hastily, supported by her tired slouch, and Kid Win in red and gold powered armor, with an annoyed frown on his exposed mouth.

"Wards," Armsmaster began, "this is Princess." Vista snickered. "She's here to collect a reward but needs to wait for her guardian to fill out the paperwork. We think it might be best for her to wait here and get to know some of you." Yes, yes, don't mention my little outburst.

"Who'd she beat?" Vista asked.

"Lung," I answered. She wasn't asking me, but I wasn't about to go back to people talking for me. My answer brought all attention to me.

"...By yourself?" She asked after a moment.

"Mostly," Armsmaster answered.

"Princess, if I may?" Opal interrupted. I nodded for her, "I possess audio-video recording capability. I'd originally recorded tonight's events so that I could illustrate some of my Princess's mistakes, but I can easily show you. If no one minds?"

"Don't point out my so-called mistakes while other people are watching," I said. Honestly, there were worse things I could think of doing than reliving the totally awesome thing I'd done earlier this night for a little bit.

No one objected, so Opal went into her compact form and then produced a projector beneath her and displaying everything between my declaration of having a dragon-slaying sword to Lung getting tranquilized onto a blank bit of wall.

The Wards were completely silent as the battle replayed and… Wow. That was less than ten minutes. It'd felt much longer while I was actually doing it.

I blinked and startled when Vista was suddenly in front of me with a big smile. "Soo," began, "you're joining the Wards, right?"

"Uhh," I looked to Opal to find that she was talking to Kid Win.

"...think of me like I'm a self-aware, multi-functional, and highly modular supercomputer," I caught her saying, "all the 'software' is in my core being and the 'hardware' for my other applications are stored in a personal pocket reality. When I need to access a function or application that isn't equipped into my standard form, I simply swap out the relevant pieces with the use of Second Magic." Kid Win's lips were pursed in thought and he nodded.

I looked back to Vista, "how does the program treat you? I mean, what's it like to be a Ward?"

"It's okay," she said with a shrug, "We're out there almost everyday learning first hand what it's like to be heroes, helping people, but..." She looked past me. I leaned back to see that Kid Win had finished his conversation with Opal and gone to the far end of the room to talk to Armsmaster, and I couldn't make out what they were saying. "But I don't think they give us the respect we're due," she said a bit quieter than before.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, we don't get paid as much as the Protectorate does, even though we're doing basically the same work," yeah, the thing Opal had complained about, "and between you and me: I've been a Ward for a couple of years now. I've been here the longest, now that Triumph has graduated out, but I still get treated like I'm fresh out of Elementary School without a single patrol to my name. I'm the seniormost Ward here, but Aegis is the oldest so he gets made the new leader. How is that fair?"

Well, now I knew that my gut feeling about the program was rational.

"What the Wards need are people like you," Vista said, "you've got video proof that you're just as good, that people in our age group are just as good as the adult Heroes… If you sign up and then that gets leaked..."

"I'll think it over," I said. I could sympathize with her, but honestly, I doubted I could do anything to help her.

"Also, the only girls here are me and Shadow Stalker and she-"

"Doesn't count?" I questioned.

"Oh no, she counts," Vista said in a tone that betrayed that this wasn't the first time someone had made that assumption, "she's just a bitch. And judging from that video, you're everything she wants to be without being a bitch, so you signing up would really piss her off and I'd give my salary for a year to see that."

"Look, I've thought about it," I said, "if I sign up I'll make sure you're the first to know."

Okay.

Thing's got awkwardly silent after that. I kind of gravitated back towards where Opal was and was approached by Aegis.

"Good evening, Princess," he greeted.

"It is," I said with a nod.

"And you were quite impressive tonight," the fit teen said awkwardly… Was he trying to make small talk or pick me up? "And I've kept up on your sightings since as Team Leader it's my job to make sure that the team is ready in case of conflicts involving other capes in the same city-We could be after the same villain or something along those lines." 'I kinda sorta have a boyfriend maybe' on standby. "And there's something I've been meaning to ask you, but it's a bit awkward..." Five, four, three, two… "Why don't you wear a mask?"

"Oh," I said, "that's not what I was expecting. Mostly because she," I gestured to Opal, "won't let me wear one."

"We've been over this, Princess," Opal interrupted when she caught what I said. "Magical Girls don't wear masks."

"Sailor V wore a mask," Vista shouted across the room at us. Everyone turned to look at her. "What?" she asked, "Agent Smith let me borrow his collection of classics."

"...Sailor V," Opal began, "isn't… _REAL!_ " The room got quiet. "Phantasmoon doesn't wear a mask. Magical Amber doesn't wear a mask. Prisma Illya, Prisma Miyu, and Dark Illya don't wear masks," those must have been her sisters' masters. "Kaleido Ruby and Kaleido Sapphire didn't wear masks-"

"Wait," I interrupted, "you're a Kaleidostick, and your sisters are named Ruby and Sapphire. Now you're telling me that there are Magical Girls..."

"Kaleido Ruby and Kaleido Sapphire were my sisters' masters before they contracted with Prisma Illya and Prisma Miyu," Opal admitted sheepishly and turned away.

"...Opal," I asked in dead seriousness, "did you have a master before me?"

"...No," she admitted, "I was created shortly before I was given my mission in this world." A few ears perked at that, but I paid them no mind.

"So, what you're telling me is that instead of some silly name like Prisma Princess, I could have been Kaleido Opal?" Opal nodded. "Okay then." Then I lept for her, grabbed her from the air, landed on the floor and started throttling her.

A minute of rolling on the floor wrestling a magic wand went by before Opal reminded me: "Princess, you are aware that I don't breathe, right? All you're doing is making us look ridiculous." I paused, blushing, and stood up to find that I was being stared at again by a room full of people who had looks about them like they weren't sure whether they should laugh or call the police. "Also I don't know if you heard, but the alarm went off a little bit ago and someone is about to come in."

I made myself as presentable as possible, but I probably needn't have bothered. The person who came in was a girl dressed head to toe in black, complete with a dark city camo cloak and a mask of a woman's face painted black… that was slightly askew, as though she'd thrown it on in a hurry, though not enough to see anything beneath it. She looked across the room, seemingly confused at Armsmaster's presence and that the room was so full until she saw me and startled. "Hebert!?"

Opal cocked to the side, my heart briefly stopped, but beyond that, the only sound was the metaphorical record scratch.

"You know Princess, Shadow Stalker?" Armsmaster asked.

"Kinda," she said, "uh, we're both at Winslow. I see her in the halls a lot. She's got a bit of a reputation there." My blood started to boil again.

"Opal," I said slowly, "this is _exactly_ why I need a mask!"

"Unfortunately," Armsmaster said turning to me, "since you're not a Ward there's not much in the way of actual discipline measures we can do for Stalker revealing your identity in these circumstances. However, if she wanted to do the right thing and unmask to you of her own accord-"

"Save it," I said, "I don't care. If she's from Winslow, then she's either an abuser or a spineless bystander. Either way, she's not worth it."

"...Look, sorry," Shadow Stalker started, sounding a little angry, "but you're pretty recognizable and you're literally the last person I expected to be here… Are you signing on or something?"

"No," I said solemnly, "not right now," and not ever. I'd had no intention of it, but this was the last straw.

"Then why are you here?"

"She beat Lung," Kid Win interrupted.

"She kicked his ass up the street," Vista added. "That huge pillar of light a while ago? That was her kicking his ass while he was full-dragon."

"Yeah," I finished, not being able to work up the will to be annoyed at the interruption, "apparently there's a reward and I can't collect until my father gets here to help deal with the paperwork, so they sent me here."

"Speaking of which, the Director just called," Armsmaster interjected, "your father just came in through the lobby so we need to get you back to the Director's office."

Shadow Stalker vacated the entryway and Armsmaster escorted me back to the office to meet my Dad.

"You know Princess," Opal said, "this probably isn't the best time, but if The Master of Arms was telling the truth about how marketable your image is, we could probably license it ourselves if money ever becomes an issue. Or now, so that you and your father can afford food that isn't trash."

I heard Armsmaster say "damn it" under his breath and smiled.


	20. Interlude 5

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

Shadow Stalker lept from roof to roof and dashed from alley to alley. After the few days she'd been having, she needed to take some time to herself and blow off some steam. Can you believe it? Fucking _Hebert's_ a Cape? And she'd apparently beaten Lung. Shadow Stalker could hardly believe it, but apparently, there was video and Armsmaster backed the story.

That wasn't the worst of it though. Sure, the fact that the twig had so much power but was still so weak-Seriously, Princess had been around for months but Hebert still wasn't even trying to fight back, not that Sophia couldn't put her in her place if the little bitch tried-but that Armsy and Miss Piggy had taken her aside and chastised her for her lack of caution with a fellow hero's civilian name.

And the little bitch was apparently someone that the bigwigs wanted to get their hands on _and_ a whiner because now she was being asked to keep an eye on the beanpole and try to stop kids from messing with her. That meant that in the near future at least, she'd have to stop playing with her and her best friend's favorite punching bag. She was having trouble explaining to Emma why they had to lay off the pathetic waste of space for a while. Normally she would have just told her fellow survivor that Hebert was a cape, but she was on thin ice as it was right now and didn't want to take the risk.

Also, apparently the big baby had made it clear that she didn't want the PRT controlling her life. The fact that Sophia actually had something in common with someone so weak was infuriating, but something she could deal with.

All in all, it meant that the last few days had been very, very stressful for Shadow Stalker. And now that she had some time to herself to cut loose and work out her frustration, she was taking it.

Paydirt! Right around the corner from where she was now was a Nazi bastard holding up a woman at knifepoint. The woman was older, she seemed caucasian, but members of E88 had been known to assume that people were Jews on flimsy reasoning, like just happening to have dark curly hair and… Wait a second. Sophia knew that guy.

Blonde crew-cut, swastika tattooed on his exposed arm, only ever wore sweats. Stupid look on his face… The kid was a senior at Winslow. Name was Shoestring or something stupid like that. Sophia had been hoping to catch the Junior Nazi doing something that'd earn a good roughing up ever since she'd bloodied her knuckles on his face for calling her "Blackie the Track Running Ni-" to her face and expected her to let him finish that sentence. She'd had to share a detention with the asshole that afternoon.

She watched as he held up the woman. The weakling just gave the boy all her cash without even bothering to put up a fight, then ran for it as soon as he let her go. Pathetic.

Blondie the Retarded Nazi went off on his way, and Shadow Stalker followed him from a safe distance until he turned into a secluded alley. Shadow Stalker shifted into her shadow form and glided up to the top of a building just in time to see dumbass shaking up a can of spray paint. Who the hell goes out mugging and tagging at the same time? Or was the woman just a target of opportunity? It didn't matter. The point was that he had no idea that she was here and his back was to her. She solidified, loaded a bolt, took aim… and fired!

...And the dumbass chose that exact moment to turn around, so the bladed dart that was meant to pierce his shoulder hit him right in the throat instead. The young man collapsed against the wall and Shadow Stalker watched him gurgle, bleed, and eventually die.

"Well fuck," she said when the corpse stopped making noises. This was bad. If the fucking PRT found out she'd killed someone else… Okay, they only knew about the guy she'd bolted to a wall, but still, she was on probation. If this made it back to the jackboots, she'd be in juvenile hall so fast…

She shifted and glided down. She had to hide the evidence that she was involved in this. Becoming solid once more, she plucked her dart from his neck and hid it away. Then she searched his body, taking his knife, his spray paint, and the cash he'd looted earlier(waste not, want not.)

With a steady hand, Shadow Stalker dragged the knife across the man's throat to obscure the actual cause of death by making it look like his throat had been slit. Then, once he'd bled as much as he was going to, she stabbed him a few times in the chest and stomach, circled and crossed out his tattoo, and carved a smile onto his face. She smiled under her mask. This wouldn't hold up to dedicated forensics, but there was no way that some rando gang-banger would get the full _PRT Miami_ treatment in a shithole like The Bay. However, it never hurt to be too careful. She hid the knife, to dispose of it elsewhere, and took his paint can.

It was when she was spraying " **AZN BAD BOYZ** " in big block letters above the corpse when she heard it. A dainty, feminine voice, like some arrogant rich bitch. A voice she'd heard the other night.

"Well, well, well," came the voice, "what do we have here?"

Sophia turned around slowly and found a floating winged star thing. "What do you want?"

"Oh nothing, nothing at all," Princess' magical trinket replied. "I was just out running an errand and stumbled across a young heroine tampering with a crime scene."

Shadow Stalker looked around. "And is Princess also running this errand?"

"No, young lady," the tool replied. "My Princess, like all well behaved young women, is getting her much-needed beauty sleep." Behind her mask, Sophia rolled her eyes at the thought of anything beauty related being associated with the ugly twig. "It is a school night, after all."

"That's all well and good," Shadow Stalker said, "but in a shithole like this, sometimes you can't afford to take the night off."

"I do believe that that's what the police, the Parahuman Response Team, Sir and Lady Pelman, Sir and Lady Dallon, and the full-time Heroes of the Protectorate are for." The tool explained politely. "A child shouldn't shirk their responsibilities or place their health or education at risk to do the work of those who are older and more able to dedicate themselves."

"I'm not a child!" Shadow Stalker shouted back at the tool.

"Oh, of course, I'm terribly sorry," the tool said without a hint of sarcasm. It then floated closer to her and began examining the body. "Tisk tisk, quite ghastly a sight."

"He deserved it," Shadow Stalker said quickly, "he was a fucking Nazi!"

"Proper young ladies shouldn't swear," the tool chastised, "and while I'd normally agree that scum like that is below consideration… You _did_ murder him in cold blood and then rob and mutilate his corpse, which is quite excessive."

"He was like this when I found him."

"And you just decided to leave a graffito of a rival gang's name on the wall around his body for your own amusement?" The tool asked cheerfully and politely. It was honestly starting to wear on Shadow Stalker's nerves. "If you say so, Lady Hess."

"What did you-!?"

"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry," the tool apologized, "slip of the tongue… Oh, are you surprised that I know?" the tool chuckled, "yes, my Princess may not have recognized your voice, but I did."

Shadow Stalker glared at the tool. "What. Do. You. Want?"

"Right now, Lady Hess, there are but a handful of things that I'm concerned about," the tool said, still polite and cheerful. "My Princess, her health, her mental wellbeing, her potential and ability to achieve it, and so on and so forth."

"You're wasting your time there," Shadow Stalker dismissed. "Hebert's got no potential. She's a victim for life."

"I'm sorry," the tool said, "could you please explain that?"

"There are two kinds of people in this world," Shadow Stalker explained, "victims and survivors. It's natural selection, the animal that's big, and strong, and can fight, kill, and eat the others is the one that survives while the small, weak animal that just runs or hides under a rock eating grass is the one that gets killed and eaten. Hebert's the rabbit, but it sounds like you're looking for a wolf."

"I don't think that's quite what Darwin meant, but thank you for the explanation," the tool said, still unceasingly polite. Enough to make someone's skin crawl, not that Shadow Stalker was that weak. "However, I believe that you're mistaken: After all, my Princess has both gifts and burdens that you could never begin to comprehend."

"Yeah, right."

"Regardless, she does go through an untoward amount of abuse almost every day and she's still going, which I do believe by definition makes her a survivor," the tool said, clearly misunderstanding Shadow Stalker's lesson, "Which brings me to my main point: You, Lady Hess, and Lady Barnes, and Lady Clements, and all of your followers… You all seem to have some irrational hatred for my Princess. That makes you all a threat to her, her happiness, and her potential. And I have witnessed you committing a major criminal activity."

"You don't have the balls to do anything."

"If you say so," the tool continued, "but the fact remains that I'm simply giving you a fair warning. If you, Lady Hess, and the others leave my princess alone and this will be the last you ever hear of this."

"And if we don't?" Shadow Stalker said, getting up in the tool's face like the survivor she was.

"Then there will be no way to fight, no distance you can run, no one who can help you, and nowhere to hide from my swift and just retribution," the damned tool said in the same formal tone as the entire conversation, "and no one will ever find your inelegant corpse."

Shadow Stalker screamed and took a swing at the piece of junk. She'd show it what happened to people who threatened her.

The device then strafed to the right, avoiding the attack, before zooming off into the sky. "And perhaps you should work on your temper as well?!" it shouted back as though it hadn't just threatened her life.

Sophia cursed and plotted where she could dispose of the knife and paint can. She'd have to do it quickly because now she had to find someone else to take her frustration out on.


	21. Chapter 16

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

I woke up in the morning feeling great. My circuits were fully healed, I'd slept through the night, and honestly, I'd been having a great week. Over the weekend I'd taken down Lung and saved Armsmaster's life. It was official, I was a proper, full-fledged Superhero. I'd gotten an earful about rushing in recklessly from Dad when we'd gotten home and I'd had to stay home the rest of the weekend, but it was worth it. Lisa had called the next morning, saying she'd seen the news and offering congratulations while Vicky had actually come over and shown me a Youtube video-apparently, someone had gotten footage from a security cam that was on the street and it went viral.

Even going back to school on Monday hadn't been bad. Something had changed: nobody messed with me or even paid the slightest bit of attention to me, except for one nasty look from Sophia on Monday and Greg trying to approach me one day after world issues but I slipped away so I don't know what that was about.

After my morning exercises, a routine of stretching and breathing that Opal had turned me onto a few months ago, saying it was good for my circuits, I took my shower and got ready for school. It was Friday, I was having a good week, I had a weekend of crime fighting ahead of me… Today was gonna be a great day.

I found Opal in the living room. Dad was nowhere to be seen, he'd said something about having to head into work early today.

"Princess," Opal said to me when I caught her attention, "last night, while I was running an errand, I saw one of the cretins from the school-"

"Don't care," I dismissed.

"...You… Don't?" Opal seemed honestly baffled.

"No," I explained, "I mean, I'm a hero now. A full-fledged, official Superhero. I can't obsess over high school bullies, I've got bigger fish to fry. Besides, they seem to be backing off. I mean, the shit they did with my locker was horrific, but that was months ago and it's not like they shoved me in or anything. Obsessing over it when I've got more important things to worry about is just going to hurt me, so I've decided not to let them get me down anymore. I don't care about them anymore." I didn't

Opal hmmed. "I suppose, but this is… Are you sure you don't want to know?"

"I'm sure," I said with a smile. Soon after, Opal was in my hair and we were on our way to school.

The trip was mostly uneventful, with nothing to distract me other than Opal being unusually squirmy today, but she didn't say anything. On the bus ride, I took out a notebook and worked on magical theory. I couldn't quite remember everything about magecraft that I gained when I installed Caster, Lancer, or Assassin but I'd used Caster and Lancer often enough that I was starting to pick some things up. Combining a few runes and characters that I didn't quite understand but knew the mystical effect of with a bit of basic understanding I could half remember from Assassin. I think I was getting decently close to a binding spell I could use without Installing.

I got off at my stop and made my way to the school, head held high for the first time in a long while. It was a little early, with people just starting to head to lockers or to the cafeteria for a cheap, school provided breakfast. I was on my way to my locker when I was grabbed and pulled into a janitor's closet.

The next thing I knew, I was pinned up against the wall with Sophia Hess's face dangerously close to mine. It felt like something awkward was about to happen, and I really hoped it wouldn't because if it turned out that the psychobitch was psycho for that reason, I'd probably become violently ill.

"Fight me, Bitch," was all Sophia said.

"...What?" Honestly, I couldn't even begin to comprehend why she'd go from just abuse to outright picking fights.

"I know you're Princess, Hebert," Sophia explained.

"I don't know what-"

"You don't wear a mask," Sophia interrupted, "I'm not fucking stupid."

God Damn it, Opal. "So, if you know I'm a Cape, then why are trying to pick a fight?" Did she have a death wish or something?

"There are two kinds of people in the world, Hebert," Sophia said. "There's the strong, who fight and do whatever they want to whoever they want, and there are little bitches who are too weak to fight back who just sit there and take what the strong do to them unless they get uppity, then they get broken down and shown their place." She was showing an awful lot of teeth for someone who wasn't smiling. "You've been going around acting like a sick deer in a den of wolves, and then you go out and take down fucking Lung? You must be a fucking fraud because if you were that strong you'd have started fighting back a long time ago." She then punched me in the stomach and started talking again. "And then you spend the next fucking week walking around like you own the fucking place. I don't care what happens next, someone's gotta put you back in your place."

I could actually hear Opal whine a bit. ...No, fuck this. I wasn't going to let Sophia ruin things now that they were finally going well for me.

I pulled my arm from Sophia's grasp. "Look, if I go fight people like Lung, I'm a hero. I pick a fight with you, I go to prison for using my powers to attack a civilian. And you? You're not worth it."

"The fuck you say?"

"I can fly," I said, "and you can't. It's a freedom that a baby psychopath like you will never know, flying like that," I smiled. "And nothing you can do, no blows against me, no harsh words or mean looks, can take the sky from me. I'm not going to risk going somewhere where I won't be able to fly over what? Petty vengeance against a High School bully? Like I said, you're not worth it."

I managed to twist around and get behind her. "If you want to fight me so bad, come back when you're a wanted felon. Knowing you, it won't be long."

And then I left the closet and continued on my way, while Sophia screamed in impotent rage. It drew some stares, but I paid them no mind.

The day went on from there as normal. Well, no, not normal. Normal was awful, this was just bland, which was infinitely better than normal. For the most part, I was left alone and that was perfect.

Until lunch. After a week of nothing bad happening and my new resolution to not let the bitches bring me down, I decided to try eating lunch in the actual cafeteria.

And then I was grabbed, yet again, and dragged into an empty classroom. There was Sophia again. I didn't even give her the chance to say or do anything, I just pulled myself loose from her grip, used my foot to push one of her own legs out from under her, and then hurried from the room.

Seconds later, _something_ ghosted through the wall. I was engulfed and surpassed by a dark, shadowy figure with bones visible beneath translucent shadow skin. The wraith solidified into Sophia, who decked me in the face and knocked me to the floor.

"Gonna fight me now, _Princess?_ " Sophia was Shadow Stalker. And she'd just outed us both in the middle of a hallway full of students. "...FUCK!" Sophia glared at me, as though it were somehow my fault.

Opal had fallen out of my hair and was now floating just off the ground, just to my right. "...This is what I was trying to tell you this morning, Princess."

I could hear other students starting to chatter. "Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker?" "Did she just say that Hebert was Princess?" "That kind of looks like Princess' scepter thing." "I am so getting unbanned from PHO after this."

I grabbed Opal and muttered "trance," instantly shifting into my transformed state. There was no point in preserving my identity at this point anyway. I then grabbed my backpack and took off flying down the hall, above students' heads. If Sophia wanted a fight this bad, then there was no way that I was going to talk the psychopath down. That meant I had to either get away from her or at least get out of the school and away from kids who could be caught in the crossfire-Winslow's students and staff were a bunch of worthless fucks and I'm pretty sure a third of them are in the gangs, but that doesn't mean I could put them in danger by fighting the bitch here.

"Get your ass back here, you pussy!" Sophia was hot on my trail. In the corner of my eye, I could see her trailing me, using her shadow form to glide over or through students that were in her way.

My first instinct was to head for the front door, but there were too many students in the way, I wouldn't be able to make a clean exit and trying to force my way through would just open me up for an attack. So I made a sharp turn down another hall. I think there was a back access, and if not well, if I was lucky I could get up a stairwell with roof access.

I noticed some students were actually following Sophia and I, one with a phone out, which was just, just perfect, really. I tried not to let them distract me and… damn, too many kids in front of the stairwell. Okay, okay, that just meant I had to-Dodge left because Sophia had thrown someone's textbook at me. Keep going, keep going… The gym!

The gym had plenty of space to move around in and there weren't any gym classes being taught during the lunch periods. I made a sudden stop and then strafed right to avoid Sophia trying to tackle me and turned back around the other way and back up the hall, then dived down a side hall.

I managed to make my way into the gymnasium without too much hassle. The high ceilings and open space gave me plenty of room to fly out of Sophia's range. This was good because Sophia phased in through the walls just as I got up near the ceiling.

The girl solidified and shouted obscenities at me, but I paid her no attention. Stupid kids were filling in behind her, cellphones out, recording the encounter. I briefly questioned why I was going out of my way to avoid collateral damage.

...Because I was a hero, and heroes never allowed for needless casualties or excessive bloodshed. Which brought me back to Sophia. I'd have to do something about her. I thought back to the binding spell I'd been working on earlier this morning… It wasn't finished yet, But Opal had said that I only had to imagine to get things to work, so…

I aimed Opal dead at Sophia and muttered "Fáisc and shibaru," words from Lancer and Caster's magic that I _think_ meant bind. A small ball of unusually sparkly white and prismatic magic flew from Opal to Sophia. She tried to avoid it by going shadow, but instead of the ball phasing through her, she was forced back into human form and her arms and legs were locked to her sides by bands of opal-colored light. She fell to the floor and started to writhe, but she seemed secure.

I landed and checked on her. She seemed fine-on closer inspection, the bands of mana seemed to be writing-the same Irish runes and Japanese characters repeating ad nauseum. Other than being restrained and pissed off, Sophia didn't seem to be hurt.

"Okay, now what?" I honestly didn't know what to do now.

"Well, Princess," Opal said, "I started recording as soon as she dragged you into the closet and again just as she was starting to attack you. Since it's undeniable that she's the one causing problems, perhaps maybe we should just submit our acquired evidence against her and the other two cretins?"

"I suppose-"

"You!" I heard someone shout. I turned to the entrance to the gym and saw Principal Blackwell forcing her way past the crowd of students. "You all get to class," she said to the kids around her, "and you! My office. Now."

I shrugged, picked up the still bound Sophia like a sack of potatoes over my shoulder, and floated out the gym door.

"By the way, Principal Blackwell, you might want to call Emma Barnes and Madison Clemmits down to your office, too. They're involved in this."

Blackwell grumbled while I carried a struggling psycho to the principal's office.

 **F/KLPT**

"Taylor," my Dad said as he walked into the office… "What are you doing?"

"Right now, my homework." I had an assignment due next week and nothing to do until everyone got here, so I'd floated up out of everyone's reach and made a couple of magical platforms to set my backpack on and use as a desk.

"...Uh, ah, eh, oh Okay," he said after a second. "I grabbed the journals from your room like you asked." He handed them over.

"Thank you," I said, taking them and setting them on my makeshift desk.

"So," he said, looking at the rooms other occupants, "What's going on, again?"

In addition to a still bound Sophia who was still glaring at me with impotent rage, her mouth apparently also bound, there was Madison who was sitting there, wide-eyed and actually shaking a little bit, and Emma, just sitting there looking perfectly calm. Madison's parents had been the first to arrive and they were just sitting there quietly with their daughter. Now that Dad was here, we were just waiting for Alan and Sophia's guardian. And for Blackwell to get back. She'd vanished after everyone had been called down.

"The magically restrained psycho found out my secret identity and got pissy when I wouldn't fight her, so she outed me in front of everyone. And herself, because she's a cape too," I sighed. "And she… She's one of the main people who was bullying me. I figured since we're gonna be here anyway, might as well take care of that, too."

"The..." Dad looked to Emma. "Emma is one of the girls that's been bullying you?"

"...Yeah." I wasn't sad. I had no more tears to shed over her.

Dad stared at Emma. "...You've slept over at our house more times than I can count."

Emma just smiled. "I don't know what Taylor is talking about, Mr. Hebert. You know, she's really been out of it since Mrs. Hebert passed." My stomach clenched. "But I'm sure that we'll get this misunderstanding sorted out once my dad gets here." Damn it, Taylor, you don't care about this anymore.

Speak of the devil, Mr. Barnes came in. Alan was a big man, tall, broad-shouldered, and rotund around the middle. The only thing he had in common with Emma was their shared red hair. "Okay, what's going on he-Taylor?"

"Yeah, I'm a cape, News at 11," I really just wanted to get this over with. "Everything'll be explained once everyone gets here."

"She went crazy, picked a fight with Sophia, exposing both of their Secret Identities, and now she's saying that Madison and I were involved." Emma's statement made Alan glare at me.

"I said, it'd all be-"

And then Blackwell came in.

With Assault and two PRT agents behind her.

"And here they are. I'm sick and tired of this one," she gestured to Sophia, "causing trouble. I keep telling her handler about her getting caught with knives and getting into fights but nothing ever happens. And this one," she pointed to me, "I didn't even know about. And now they're getting into Cape Fights in the halls. I'm done. Arrest them, take them away, just, just get them out of my school."

God damn it. Apparently, Blackwell had Emma and Madison dragged here and had them call their parents just to humor me and keep my docile while she… Well, no, I'm not gonna stand for that.

"Opal, do the thing."

"Yes, my Princess," Opal had initially objected to my choice of code for 'project Sophia's bullshit onto the wall,' but she'd come around when I said it was about the presentation.

My wand moved from her perch, wrapped around my arm, and entered projector form, showing Sophia dragging me into the closet, our conversation, my leaving, and her unprovoked attack against me hours later on the way to the cafeteria, leading to our identities being exposed, the chase, and my binding her.

Oh, the look of pure, murderous rage in Sophia's eyes was almost funny. Emma's own eyes widened for a second, but she composed herself quickly enough.

"As you can see," I said as the footage stopped rolling, "Sophia was the sole aggressor. She assaulted me without provocation, compromising her identity and my own in the process," I explained calmly. "I attempted to escape, and when that proved unfeasible I ended the conflict by harmlessly incapacitating the aggressor. A bunch of kids were recording the chase on their phones, so there's plenty of corroborating footage just waiting to be uploaded to Youtube. There's no cause for you to arrest me."

Assault shrugged. "Yeah, some of that phone footage is already uploaded on the 'Net, we've seen some of it. Between that and what you've got here… Yeah, this is good enough for me. Not like I was going to actually arrest you anyway." He gave a cheesy smile. " Uh… I'm not sure how to cuff Stalker when she's stuck like that."

"The spell keeps her paralyzed for a couple of hours, tops," I said, "So you can take her as is, but after what she did today, I'm not letting her loose. She'll just fly off the handle again."

"Oh, okay I guess." The two Agents looked at each other. "Can we get a copy of that footage?"

"That footage isn't admissible in court," Alan interrupted. "It was obtained without her knowledge or consent."

"Okay, Alan?" I asked, "one… This is a public school. There's no expectation of privacy here. Two, whether it's admissible in court or not isn't relevant: I'm not pressing charges. Not against Sophia for today, not against the other two for the shit they've done." I looked to the Agents who, at Assaults instruction, were now awkwardly trying to pick up a Sophia who was trying to scream through her bound lips. "I'll try to get the footage to the PRT ASAP."

"If it's of any value," Opal added, "last night I was exploring the town and running a few errands when I saw Shadow Stalker mutilating a corpse and tagging a gang sign above it." she sounded almost clinical and now I was wishing I'd listened to her earlier. "After I caught her, I recorded what I could before retreating with the intent of turning the footage over at my earliest convenience."

Assault went quiet for a solid minute. "...Yeah, we're gonna need that too. Is there uh, Anything else you want to tell us." I was curious about that too.

"Nothing that comes to mind," Opal said with the magic wand/video projector equivalent of a shrug.

Sophia, screaming even louder, was then hauled out by two men carrying her awkwardly into the hall.

"Before I leave," Assault said as he turned to me… "we did see a bit of this from the phone footage before coming down, I've been authorized to tell you that the PRT is willing and able to provide assistance with a guard or helping you move to a new city with new names." He paused for a second. "I've also been authorized to offer you a place in the Wards with the knowledge that the PRT will be able to more easily get authorization for funds to help keep you and your family safe if you join."

Did, are… Of course, they are. "I'll talk about it with my Dad later." No, I wouldn't. Honestly, I trusted my own safety precautions to protect me more than anything I'd have to give up my freedom to get.

Assault left, and I turned to Blackwell, who was grimacing uncomfortably. "That was a dirty trick, calling everyone down here and pulling my Dad, Mister Barnes, and Mister and Mrs. Clements down here without any intent to talk about what happened… Okay, actually, I do have to thank you," I said, changing gears, "if you'd gotten your way you'd have wasted everyone's time, but it did make dealing with Sophia easier than it had any right to be."

"If we could talk about the accusations you leveled against Emma and the others a short while ago," Alan interrupted.

"Opal?"

Opal started playing more things she recorded. Every mean look, every harsh word, every bit of stolen homework… Apparently, it was Madison who'd got me with the rancid peanut butter. Opal finished with the confrontation between myself and Emma and Sophia in the bathroom a while back.

When Opal finished, I picked up my journals. "These are records I've kept of every time they did something to me in the past year. It has all of what Opal just showed you all, as well as several events that happened before Opal and I met. I also have multiple school Email Addresses which, coming from the school, the administration should be able to access, that are all full of hundreds of threatening Emails, each, from accounts that purport to belong to Emma, Madison, Sophia, and several others. Direct video evidence of the last three and a half or so months worth should be enough to prove the validity of these records."

Emma was just staring at me now. Alan opened his mouth. "None of that will hold up in-"

"Mr. Barnes, please pay attention," I interrupted, "I already said I wasn't pressing charges."

"Taylor," Dad said, "are you sure about that?"

"Yeah," I answered. "A week ago, when I kicked Lung's ass with my awesome magical powers… It kind of put things in perspective. I'm a Superhero now. The Trio… Well, now the Duo, they can't hurt me anymore. When I realized that, they just stopped being important." I tried to think of the best way to phrase it. "It's like I've outgrown them, and their pathetic attempts to tear me down." I did. I'd completely outgrown them and probably wouldn't spare them another thought the second we were done here.

It was then that I noticed that Madison had practically retreated into the cushioning of her seat and that her parents seemed rather mad at her. I paid it no mind because a second later I could have sworn that I heard Emma growling.

"Anyway," I continued, "at this point taking it beyond the school would just be a waste of time and energy. I wouldn't have even gone this far if Sophia hadn't snapped."

"So," Blackwell said, "what is it that you want to school to do? Expel them?"

I shrugged. "Nothing, really. Like I said, I really don't care anymore. It'd be nice if they'd leave me alone from now on or if the school did something if they start bullying somebody else, but right now all I want to do is get home so I can reinforce the bounded field and double up on the runic security matrix before Rune tracks down my house and tosses a car through my bedroom window."

"Fine," Blackwell said. "You… You're dismissed."

I put my assignment away, dismissed my makeshift desk, and landed next to Dad, backpack in hand, while Opal returned to wand form and wrapped herself around my bicep.

As we walked out of the school, Dad turned to me. "Taylor… Are you going to be okay?"

I smiled. "Yeah. All things considered, I think I'm gonna be just fine."


	22. Chapter 17

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

 _Taylor lived in a big house. Her family was big, but she often felt lonely. Mostly because she was a screw-up. And her whole family hated her for it. She wasn't very good at school. They'd run some tests on her and told her that something about her was all wrong, but they didn't say what._

 _She was walking back to her room through the big hallways, full of_ roses, _after school-she couldn't even get the basics right, as her aunt had made abundantly clear. Her aunt yelled really loud every time she made a mistake and the fresh bruises on her face really drove home how worthless she really was. At least she had Her. That was something._

 _Her aunts, uncles, and cousins glared at her on her way. Some of them muttered bad things about her. When she was little, when they'd first realized how much of a waste she was, it hurt but now she knew that it was just the truth. It still stung a little._

 _She was waiting for her in her room. Sitting in the rocking chair, in Her pretty blue dress, and Her pretty red hair. Taylor picked Her up and carried Her to the bed._

 _Honestly, she was probably too old to have dolls, but she was all she had. She'd been a gift from Daddy. Taylor hadn't seen Daddy since she was little. Not since they found out how worthless she was. Daddy had to do something important, but he'd failed. The Lady had told her that it was Taylor's fault that Daddy failed and had to go away, but that was okay because Daddy had never loved her anyway… but then why had he given her Her?_

 _There was a knock at her door. She got up quickly and answered it, and it was The Lady. She was smiling. Taylor had never seen The Lady smile before. The Lady was so pretty when she smiled… Wait, The Lady was smiling at her!_

 _The Lady hugged her and said kind words about things Taylor could do that would make her and the rest of the family love her again. Taylor, of course, said yes, but couldn't help but feel scared when The Lady said what it was..._

 _...Taylor was meditating in her room, which was a lot emptier than_ before, _when the Lady came and led her away._

 _Taylor didn't speak, she wasn't allowed to, but she nodded and tried her best to swallow her fear and nerves. She was scared, more scared than she'd ever been, but The Lady finally loved her. The Lady led Taylor through the house, through the estate, through a maze of rose bushes to a dead end. The Lady waved her hand and the ground vanished, revealing a staircase down into the Gymnasium from school._

 _The lady led her up to a table at the far end and said some things that soothed her nerves while lots and lots of cousins in suits and dresses filled in._

 _Suddenly, Taylor was wearing a beautiful white dress. She ate cake, and punch, and then stepped out onto the floor to dance with her cousins, who gifted her with lots of pretty roses and…_

 _...Suddenly, she was naked. Four of her cousins picked her up and carried her to the table where the Lady, still smiling as beautiful as ever, said something that filled Taylor with the intense feeling of betrayal and then poured a bucket of blood and flower petals over her._

I snapped awake and sat up in bed. "The fuck was that!?"

I blinked the sleep from my eyes, grabbed my glasses, and checked the time. 3 AM, shit.

Nothing else to do, I got up and went to the kitchen, where I boiled some water for tea.

A little while later, while I was drinking my tea, Opal floated into the kitchen. "Princess," she said, "it's not good for a young lady to be up at this hour."

"I know," I said, "It's just… I had this weird dream and… ugh."

"Oh, really?" Opal said, floating up to me. "Tell me about it."

"Oh, it wasn't anything important, just..." I thought back. "Like I had all these cousins that I'm pretty sure I don't have in real life and they hated me but then they loved me, and there was this Lady who I wanted to love me enough to do things that terrified me and then we were at a school dance and then I got covered in blood like in _Carrie_... Honestly, it's just weird."

Opal hummed to herself and got this look about her. "I don't know," she said, "dreams can mean things. Especially the dreams of Magi and other practitioners of Magecraft. It could be prophetic, or it could just be your subconscious trying to process everything that's happened since you got 'outed.' "

It'd been a few days and things had been weird. No attacks at home, at least none that I'd noticed before I got the wards updated and did the same for Lisa and Brian's places, but I was starting to regret insisting on going back to school on Monday. Lots of kids who'd never given me the time of day before or teachers who ignored me as things happened had suddenly been trying to get buddy-buddy with me. As for Emma…

She and Madison hadn't been expelled or anything, yet… But they were basically total outcasts now, and Emma had had a breakdown on Monday. Last I heard, she'd been committed to some kind of mental hospital.

"Let's start with this 'pretty lady,' " Opal began, "a beautiful woman who you want to love you even though all she seems to do is hurt you... " Opal hummed sadly, "Perhaps on some level… You wish things could go back to the way things were when you were younger and Miss Barnes was still your best friend? Even as you know that she'd only hurt you?"

I thought about it and thought back to the lady in my dreams. Pretty and always smiling even as she said things that hurt me… "Yeah, I can see that." I'd thought I was over everything, but…

"Just remember, Princess," Opal went on to say, "feelings don't have to make sense."

"I guess."

"Now," Opal continued, "the fictional cousins are easy, and probably tie into that sudden school dance: It's all those pesky social climbers who ignore or facilitated your abuse but are now attempting to get into your good graces," Opal shrugged. "Who's that one young woman who's been trying to talk to you for the past three days?"

"Cheryl or Charlotte or something," I answered.

"Think, did any of those cousins look like her?"

I thought back to the dream again… "I guess, maybe? I don't really remember."

"Now then," Opal went on, "what's this 'Carrie' thing?"

"Oh uh," I hesitated. 'Going Carrie' had been slang for a kid who fit the school shooter stereotype getting powers and going crazy for as long as I could remember. I never thought I'd have to explain it. "Uh, _Carrie_ was the title character of a Steven King story, it was adapted to film and TV a couple of times about a girl with telekinetic powers. She was bullied at school and abused at home by her psycho-religious mother. Then she got made prom queen as part of a prank that ended with her getting pig's blood dumped on her so she snapped and used her powers to slaughter everyone at the school."

Opal hmmed. "Princess, I'm going to ask you something and I want you to promise me that you won't get upset. Can you do that?"

I nodded.

"Promise me."

I rolled my eyes. "I promise."

"Is it," Opal said hesitantly, "is it possible that maybe some tiny part of you maybe wants to… Lash out, against the people who hurt you?"

"No!" I said… "I mean, no… Maybe." I tried to suppress a couple of thoughts I had a while ago. "I, I thought about… Getting rid of the Trio a time or two, but… Am I a bad person?"

Opal floated up and patted me on the head. "No, Princess. The desire for revenge is deeply ingrained in the human subconscious, having such feelings is natural. The fact that you refused to act on them and merely treated the brutes as being as far beneath you as they are, it speaks well to your character."

I exhaled. "Thanks, Opal."

I finished my tea.

"I think I'm done trying to make sense of that dream… I'm just gonna try and get back to bed."

"That sounds like a plan," Opal began, "and perhaps in the morning, we can focus on something a bit less serious. Like maybe finding that pervert that's been writing fiction about yourself and Victoria."

"Wait, What!"


	23. Chapter 18

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

 _And Princess Taylor and her Dear Victoria's eyes met and the leaned into each other, feeling each other's warm breath on their skin, and-_

"What the hell!?" Vicky shouted. She must have gotten to the part where she and I did things that I'm pretty sure can only be posted on PHO Afterdark.

"I know, right?" I asked, rhetorically.

"Fanfiction is one thing," she said, standing up from her computer desk, "but this is just sick… This person knows things about me that have never been revealed to the public."

"That first story was published before I was outed," I pointed out, "but they got my name right."

"Someone's stalking us," she concluded. I had to nod in agreement. "God damn it… I'm straight. I have a boyfriend."

"Same," I said which was… Kind of the truth.

She sat back down and looked through the other stories. "There's one where you and I do unspeakable things to Rune of E88-"

"Gross," I said, shaking. "She's like, the closest thing I have to an arch enemy."

"Oh god," Vicky said, disgusted. "Whoever this guy is, they did one that's you, me, Ames, and some girl named Lisa."

My eye twitched. "That's it then," I said, "we're going to have to track this guy down and give them a piece of our mind."

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah," I said, "I mean, if he or she knows enough about us to get the name of one of my other friend's right, then they've gotta be here in the Bay, right?" Vicky looked back at me and nodded. "And this isn't exactly a big enough deal to get the authorities involved, so… Lisa, the real Lisa, is really good at figuring things out and maybe she can help..."

"Maybe."

 **Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

"So," Lisa said, stepping in… "This is the Dallon house." She seemed a bit nervous.

"Yeah," Vicky said, "I've had friends over once or twice and everyone's always surprised that it's just a normal house," she had, "I swear to God people seem to think we live in a cave with a giant computer on the wall or something."

Lisa laughed.

"You know," Vicky said, turning back to her, "there's something familiar about you."

Lisa dismissed that with a wave of her hand. "I get that a lot."

"No, seriously, have we met before?" Vicky asked. "Charity event? Meet and Greet?"

"No," Lisa answered. "I prefer to keep charitable acts anonymous and honestly, I can't stand how fake and shallow the kinds of people who do go to those things can get."

"Oh, don't I know it," Vicky said, "you hear about the Vice-Versa photoshoot? They got a bunch of kids without powers, athletes and honor students, from around here to dress up like capes and then they had the Wards and I in fancy outfits. I had a chat with some girl named Emma and a friend of hers that tagged along, though they mostly stuck with Shadow Stalker… And then they and some of the others spent a lot of time just making fun of a girl who needed help getting her costume adjusted over her back brace. Who the hell does that?"

I sighed. "If this Emma was a redhead who was small everywhere except her boobs, then it wouldn't surprise me in the least."

Vicky turned back. "Yeah… Someone, you know?"

"Someone I thought I knew. Don't want to talk about it." My stomach was clenching. Damn it all.

She seemed to get it. "If it makes you feel any better, I called her and her bitch friends a bunch of cunts."

I faked a laugh. "Okay, we've got a stalker to track down."

"Is Panacea going to be involved in this scheme?" Lisa asked as we went up to Vicky's room, where the computer was waiting to access Panpan69's fanfiction archive.

"No," Vicky said, "She's doing her rounds at the hospital right now. Actually, I'll have to go get her in about an hour so we'll have to have this wrapped up for the day by then."

"Yeah, that's fine," Lisa answered, " to be honest I've only got so much time I can do this anyway."

Once we were back in Vicky's room, with Lisa at the computer… Honestly, we had to wait for her to read enough of the stuff to get an idea.

Vicky floated off the floor and rested in the air. Well, when in Rome.

"Opal?"

"About time," she said. She extended her handle, which I grabbed. "Compact Full Open. Mirror World Circuits: Maximum Engage!" Fuck.

A minute later, after just going with the flow and getting through the full transformation sequence as fast as possible, Vicky was staring at me. "You know, you were naked for about half a minute, right?"

"Yes. I know." I said with a sigh. "Opal… Why?"

"I felt like it," she said with a laugh.

Lisa also laughed.

"You know," I said, "the first time Lisa saw my Caster Install, she was so dumbstruck that she just walked around me in a circle and then just yanked on my tail to see if it was real."

Vicky laughed at that. "To be fair, Caster Princess is adorable. I'm serious, I want to pet you when I see you like that."

"...You know Vicky, that's probably why our stalker is shipping us."

"No it's not," Lisa interrupted. "Whoever this person is seems to have a fixation with Victoria, but Taylor seems to be a convenient avatar."

I blinked. "An avatar?"

"They're using you as a substitute for themselves," Lisa explained. "You, or at least what they've seen of you, are superficially similar enough to them that they can picture themselves in your shoes… Basically, they've got fantasies involving themselves and Glory Girl and they're using stories about her and you to live them vicariously."

"And that means?" I asked, feeling a bit sick at the thought of being used in someone's fantasies.

"It means," Lisa said, "that Panpan69 is probably a teenage girl in the fourteen to sixteen range. Not the best socially. Probably with a physical resemblance to yourself on some level-thin, maybe not as attractive as they think Glory Girl is-Let's face it, Princess, you can be cute when you want to but you're not exactly a ten."

"Thank you, former best friend," I deadpanned.

"Just think of it as payback for mentioning the Caster incident, foxgirl," Lisa deadpanned back at me.

"Anyway, they slip up and say that your hair is brown a few times, so she's probably a brunette…" Lisa hummed. "Okay, that's disgusting. Anyway, They've got some stories about Glory Girl prior to when you and Taylor met, but nothing so … They describe your aura a few times… Think you could turn it up to full blast so I can get a gauge of how accurate they were?"

"Okay. Brace yourself." Vicky proceeded to turn the Awe Aura up to full blast. Personally, I'm not sure how to describe it but all I know is that I suddenly felt absolutely safe in her presence. As though nothing could possibly go wrong as long as she was here.

And then it passed. Lisa had fallen out of the chair.

"Yeah," she said, pulling herself back up. "Whoever wrote this has felt your aura at full blast."

Vicky looked confused."So… Probably a criminal? Or a classmate that asked for a pick me up?"

"How often do you do that?" I asked.

"Uh… More often than I probably should?" Vicky admitted sheepishly.

"The only person I can think of who fits all those criteria," Lisa said, "would be your sister and she's also the only person I'm willing to rule out right now."

Vicky looked like she was about to say something when Lisa mentioned Panacea, but then she changed tracks, "Why is she for sure off the list? I mean, don't get me wrong I don't think it's her, but..."

"Well, for one, Panpan69 is an obvious reference to Panacea," Lisa explained, "one that's too obvious. I think whoever she is was using Panacea as an insert point in her fantasies before finding out about Taylor. And honestly," Lisa carried on, "I think if your sister had a disturbing sexual fixation on you, you'd have noticed. Nobody's stupid enough to miss something like..." Lisa blinked. "Anyway, I think this is about as much as I can get with what we have now. Glory Girl-"

"Vicky," Vicky corrected.

"Vicky, if you can get me pictures and descriptions of people you know who fit the profile I set out," Lisa explained, 'then I should be able to figure out if they're Panpan69 or at least rule them out."

And so Lisa and I left the Dallon house.

"Lisa," I asked, "you kind of got a bit… Eh there at the end."

"Look, it's something personal," Lisa answered. "You have things you don't want to talk about and I have things that I don't like to talk about." She shrugged. "Maybe I'll tell you someday, but we at least have to deal with this stalker first."

I nodded, agreeing to let her keep her secrets and soon after we parted ways for the day.


	24. Chapter 19

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

I slashed through a chunk of stone with a summoned Gae Bolg. "You know, Rune, these kinds of meetings are a bit repetitive."

Empire Eighty-eight had taken Lung's capture as an opportunity to expand out and take territory that used to belong to the ABB. I'd mostly left it to the PRT and police, since an organized response was what was needed to combat gang warfare and I was more of a "smack down the villains" type hero, at least on my own, but I couldn't exactly look away when I was on patrol and happened to find my arch-nemesis and a couple of her fellow Hitler Youth rejects in the act of vandalizing businesses in the predominantly Asian part of town. Oddly, Saito repairs hadn't been touched… I should check on Mister Saito at some point. He was kinda-sorta a friend and I'd hate it he someone went after him to get to me.

Anyway, Rune. "Shut up, race-traitor," she said while tagging a stop sign with her powers. "Shouldn't you be fucking your buck instead of stopping upstanding citizens from cleaning up the trash?"

"Upstanding… Nazis," I said incredulously. "Your group identifies as Nazis. Your name is even code for 'Heil Hitler.' " I wrote a few runes of my own in the air, which formed a magical barrier that kicked in just in time to block Rune's stop sign. "You don't get to call yourselves upstanding citizens when you identify as the one bad guy that's universally agreed on to be okay to kill in droves in a fictional work."

The response was a barrage of gravel that clicked as they bounced off of my runic shield.

I quickly looked around. It seemed that the three or four young Empire Grunts that Rune had brought with her had fled at some point, which I had mixed feelings about: It made things easier on me but it meant that I couldn't capture them and turn them in, so they were free to keep hurting people.

It was then that I heard people behind me. I turned just in time to see the four Empire-bangers who'd been with Rune. One had a gun but the other three were holding Molotov cocktails.

It was lucky for me that Lancer was so fast as I was able to spin my spear to deflect Gunner's bullet spray but three frightened gangers with flaming bottles of booze were a bit harder. I couldn't just carelessly dodge them, less a building catch fire…

One of the gangers chucked his right at me. I had a split second to react and ended up batting it into the street, where it shattered and started a small fire.

This, in turn, scared the hell out of the other two molly holders, causing them to drop their lit booze.

Now instead of four armed Gangers, I had four screaming teenagers with flaming legs. That was bad. Really bad.

Then the gunner dropped his gun… It didn't land in the fire but it was awfully close to it and I wasn't sure if that myth about bullets going off when they were on fire was true or not.

I wasn't sure just what I was doing but I started conjuring runes in the air as I ran in the street. At least a dozen and moments later when I completed a circle in the air the runes flashed a cool gold and strong, freezing winds began to flow outward, blowing out and cooling the fires… I really hope I hadn't just frozen these kids' legs too bad.

Now they were all on the ground, moaning. One of them was crying… This, this was why you had to be careful fighting normals. It hadn't been me this time, but it would have been ridiculously easy for me to have splattered these guys… These were just kids, not much older than I was...

I sighed and looked around. No sign of Rune. she must have run off while I was dealing with the normals… I guess the Empire doesn't value loyalty.

I uninstalled Lancer and went from 'Celtic Ninja' to 'Fairy Princess' in an instant. I sheathed the Lancer card and looked down at Opal. "You said that you could contact emergency services? You think you can patch into the phone lines."

Opal switched into pocket-sized-mode and started buzzing. She stopped and started speaking. "Hello, Emergency Services? Requesting special line on behalf of Independent Heroine Princess… I'm more than willing to hold but the cretins we have badly burned themselves with improperly handled makeshift incendiaries so I'm not so sure they'd be so willing to oblige… four unpowered criminals that were accompanying the villain Rune in what appeared to be an attempt to vandalize and commit arson against several small businesses…" Opal hummed. "Thank you very much."

She clicked and turned back into a Wand.

"So?"

"They're sending four ambulances with an officer to meet them at the hospital," Opal replied. "They're also sending a police officer to take your statement as the arresting Hero so… We've got to stay here for a bit."

"That's fine," I said. Honestly, I'd have felt bad leaving these guys here, anyway.

About a minute later, Glory Girl landed next to me.

"Hey, Princess..." She said, "I-What happened here?"

"Some Empire Kids accidentally set themselves on fire," I said.

"...You want me to call Panacea?" She asked.

"There's ambulances on the way. What was it you wanted?" I asked back.

"Oh uh, I got the stuff your friend wanted for the investigation," she explained, "I tried to call you at home, but your dad said you were on patrol."

"Okay," I said, "I'll call Li-her up and get her to come over so we can pick up soon."

The police arrived at the same time as the ambulances did.

 **F/KLPT**

"No," Lisa said. She was comparing photos and lists of details about people that Vicky knew. "It's not Jamie Watson, either…"

"You sure?" Vicky asked.

"Yeah," Lisa explained. "Like… there are a couple of people that are close, but none of them close enough to fit Panpan69's profile."

"...Are you sure," Vicky began, "that you've got all the details right?"

Lisa looked at Vicky with an icy stare that I'd so far only seen on supervillains. "I'm not stupid, Miss Dallon. I wouldn't have said anything if I wasn't sure."

"Geez, sorry," Vicky said. "Don't bite my head off, I'm just..."

"Look," Lisa said while rubbing her temples. "I'm gonna check Panacea's bedroom."

"...Why?" Both I and Vicky asked at the same time. Opal, from her resting spot in my hair, chuckled.

"Because, my dears," Lisa said with a hint of snark, "I'd like to know for sure that the improbable is, in fact, impossible so we can eliminate it and thus find the truth."

I saw Vicky blink. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Sorry," Lisa said. "I was up late last night and I'm starting to get a headache. Anyway, check Panacea's room, just to 100% rule her out. If nothing else it'd be a change of tracks to clear my mind."

"Oh.. Okay, I guess," Vicky said. "If it'll help. Just, just be quick about it."

We left Vicky's room and went down the hall, to Panacea's. Lisa just looked around, examining Amy's bed, the keyboard of her computer, the books and such she kept.

And then the door opened, with Panacea walking in and pausing when she saw us all in here.

"What are you all doing in my room?" She asked.

"Engaging in very poor timing," Lisa deadpanned.

"We're trying to figure something out," I said.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Lisa asked all of a sudden.

"... _Excuse_ me?" Amy replied.

"I apologize for being so blunt, but well, there's a problem we've been trying to figure out and I needed a change of scenery and well… I can tell by the way you keep your room that you're not into dudes."

"There is no way in Hell that you can tell that from how I keep my room!"

"So wait..." Vicky said, "Amy, are you really-?"

"Yes," Panacea cut off, "I'm gay. No, I don't have a girlfriend. How is this anybody's business?" She asked with a glare.

Opal wiggled out of my hair. "Oh, it's not like anyone here is judging you, in fact, my s-"

I grabbed Opal. "I think we've overstayed our welcome here," I said. "Crossed a few boundaries. Lisa, we're gonna have to figure out who the stalker is some other time."

Panacea's tone and stance changed in an instant. "Stalker?"

"Yeah," Vicky said awkwardly, "you know Taylor and… Oh, you haven't met Lisa, she's a friend of Taylor's," she said with a gesture to my best civie friend. "Uh… Look, this is really awkward to say, but… Uh… Someone's stalking me and Taylor."

Panacea blinked. "Seriously?"

"They're uh… writing stories about me, and your sister..." I began awkwardly, " about us doing things that neither of us is particularly interested in doing. At least with each other… Not that there's anything wrong with that," I added hastily, considering what I'd just learned about her.

I was just beginning to notice the blush behind Panacea… Amy's freckles.

"And this perv knows way too much about us to just be some rando," Vicky finished, "so we're trying to figure out who Panpan69 really is."

It seemed that Amy was speechless.

"...Oh God," Lisa said, palming her face.

Vicky turned back to her. "...What?"

"I've got good news and bad news," Lisa said. "The good news is that I know who Panpan69 is. The bad news is that your sister wants you sexually."

This prompted Vicky to start laughing. "Okay, but seriously, what's wrong?"

Amy was looking down and had the complexion of a mud-splattered tomato.

"Oh..." Vicky said, realizing what happened. "Amy… Ames. You are my sister and I love you, but seriously, what the fuck!?"

"Nobody was supposed to… You were never… I feel bad enough about… This already… Just, just..."

"Clearly," Lisa began, "what happened is that Amelia, being only your adopted sister, doesn't have whatever biological or psychological drives that keep people from recognizing their siblings as viable mates. She very clearly has a type, strong-willed, stacked blondes, that you, her beloved older sister and best friend, happen to-"

She was cut off by loud banging and thumping. Sirens went off in the distance. Then a phone rang.

"Well, alright then," Opal said, "Lisa, as you were saying?"

"Opal, no," I said. "I think that maybe whatever just happened is more important."

"But Princess, this is the whole reason that we're here," Opal countered, "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm particularly interested in how this turns out. Incestuous lesbianism is more Ruby's interest, the pervert, but-"

"Not the time, Opal," I said.

"Taylor?" Lisa said as she stood to leave. "Your wand needs to learn some tact."

I rolled my eyes. After what she'd just unleashed… Whatever, I just wanted to avoid the awkward right now.

Cautiously, we went downstairs to find Mrs. Dallon… Brandish, on the phone. The TV was on, an emergency alert beginning to play.

Brandish hung up. "Vicky, take your civilian friend back upstairs, she's not going home till we know it's safe. I'll talk to your father about keeping an eye on her, then you and Amy need to suit up. That was the PRT emergency line calling in all affiliated heroes: Someone just set off bombs all over the city."

I tranced and flew for the door. I didn't know if Brandish had anything to say to me, but I didn't care. Dad was at work today. The wards on the house wouldn't keep him safe if he wasn't there and I needed to make sure he was okay.


	25. Chapter 20

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

I could barely see anything but the ground whizzing under me. I could only just barely hear sirens and explosions over the pounding of my heart and the wind rushing past my ears. I needed to get to the Dockyard. I had to make sure-

A loud bang and some screaming from below almost directly below me would have been enough to shake me from my single-mindedness if the shockwave from the explosion making me stumble in the air hadn't.

I rebalanced myself and turned on a dime to look below me. A building had been blown apart and was about to collapse completely onto some civilians who'd been knocked down by the blast.

I swung Opal in its direction while willing her star-shaped barriers to manifest before the crumbling building, holding up most of the rubble but…

"Princess," Opal began, "we can only put out so much mana at once and without a repelling force my shields won't do anything to diminish the velocity at which the debris will fall once the force of gravity inevitably overcomes the strength of the barrier."

I looked down at the people on the ground… There were about twenty of them, and half of them looked like they were having trouble getting back up.

"Opal," I asked, "how long do you think the barriers will hold if I cut off the flow of Mana?"

"With the lack of ambient mana?" Opal said clinically, "approximately thirty seconds."

I lowered myself to the ground as fast as I could without disrupting concentration on the barriers and rummaged through my holster for a class card. "That should be enough."

I only had a short amount of time. I had to do this perfectly. I took a breath, dropped concentration on the shields, and used a card: "Install: Assassin!" I willed myself to get through the transformation as fast as possible and then immediately drew upon "Chronos Rose!"

Time stopped and I ran, pulling the people out of the way of falling rubble before they could get crushed. Assassin's Noble Phantasm ended just as I gently sat down the last person and the ruble fell to the ground, crushing absolutely no one as everyone was well out of the splash zone.

A couple of people, those who were the least injured, were looking around in confusion. "H-how did we get over here?" One man asked.

"Time magic," I said casually as I ejected the Assassin card. I was about to head back up into the air when another, distant explosion followed by a loud, guttural roar drew my attention to the Bay.

Out in the distance, I could see smoke billowing from the Rig and the dragon-like form of Lung flying towards the mountains. I then decided that maybe I'd stay closer to the ground for the time being.

"Look, uh, I don't have much in the way of medical ability," I said to the closest able-bodied person. "I'm sure that emergency workers will be around here… eventually, but I really need to get to the dockyard, so… I'm so sorry," I said and then took off running.

"We should have killed the Brute when we had the chance," Opal quipped.

"Opal, there is no possible way that anyone could have predicted any of this happening," I said back. "The PRT had him contained on the Rig. That might as well have been Alcatraz. There's no way in hell he wouldn't have been kept in the Birdcage after he was convicted and escape from there is supposed to be impossible. There's no way anyone could have predicted him escaping during a city-wide terrorist attack. This might as well have been an Endbringer hit or the Slaughterhouse Nine coming to town for all we could have known ahead of time."

"A what or the what now?" Opal asked.

"I'll explain later."

Getting by on foot was a lot slower than flying… Mostly because I had to keep slowing down to catch my breath. I need to start jogging or something when this clears up.

Every so often I'd hear another explosion, but I only got an up-close view of another bombing when a crying man who was running towards a crowd suddenly started convulsing while blue streaks of electrical plasma erupted from him and ravaged the area around him.

I came to a dead stop, skidding on my heels, and went for my Berserker card. "Install: Berserker!"

Again I rushed through the change as fast as I could and slammed the Bridal Chest's base into the ground while opening up its sphere and drawing in the electricity that this unfortunate man was emitting into it and thus in me.

The sudden rush of having a whole freaking lot of electricity made me feel slightly less nervous about my dad.

That faded once I'd absorbed every last drop of juice the guy had in him and was drawn back to earth by the smell of charred flesh. This man was dead, as were a couple of other people near him.

"Ugh… uhh..." I wasn't sure what to say. A couple of other people were looking at me, so I just ran off back in the general direction of the Dockyard.

"Princess," Opal said to me, "he'd have been dead regardless. You're not responsible… You probably saved most of the people that were-"

"I need to find my Dad," was all I said.

"Well, then perhaps you should be dropping the Berserker Install now," Opal said as though stating the obvious. "The Brute has probably made it to his destination by now so there's no reason not to fly, and likewise since you very much enjoy this form I don't think being in it during this situation any more than necessary would be good for your mental state in the long term."

I once more skidded to a stop on my heels, then fell over because I was _wearing_ heels. I ejected the card while lying flat on my back.

"Opal," I asked of my wand, "how was I running in such impractical heals?"

"Don't think about it too hard," Opal explained, "now let's get going."

I flipped up, took to the air, and flew for it.

I finally made it to the Dockyard after way too long. There was a huge bit of lumpy glass right in the middle of the yard, but no exploded bodies, so…

I landed by a group of people who were crowded around, looking shaken up. "Uh, hello," I asked, "I-" Then I got a better look at the lumpy glass and saw that the lumps were a glass statue of a man laying on top of another man: The man on top seemed resigned to something. The man below was Asian and looked scared and sad and…

"Glass bomb?"

"Something like it," called a familiar voice. I turned and saw Kurt, a friend of my dad's. "Taylor? Oh, that's right," he said. "I'd heard… Yeah, the guy, he came in, crying about how sorry he was and rushing for the offices, yelling about how he had to get to your Dad. Carl just tackled him out of nowhere and told the rest of us to get clear, and..." He gestured to the glass.

"Is my dad okay?"

"I don't know. He's been in his office ever since..." Kurt was clearly shaken. Everyone was.

I bid him goodbye and floated over to my Dad's office. I didn't bother knocking, I just rushed in. Dad was sitting at his desk, perfectly still with a dead stare. He barely reacted.

"Dad?" I said as I walked up

"Taylor," he said looking up. "I'm sorry, uh-"

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I, uh..." He signed. "That man came in here for me. I'm not sure why, but… Carl tackled him, he saved me. He saved everyone who might have gotten taken out with me, and… He had a wife and two kids. What am I supposed to tell them?"

"I don't know," I said. "That he died a hero? Or is that too cheesy? I..." I hugged my Dad. It was the only thing I could think of.

He hugged back.

I don't know how long it was, but then there was a knock on the door. "Uh, Boss," a man from outside said, "Uh… Armsmaster's here with some guys from the PRT..."

"I'll be out in a second," Dad said. He took a bit to compose himself. "Taylor, would you-"

"I'm not leaving your side."

"Wasn't going to ask."

We walked out together and saw a single PRT van at the end of the dockyard. There were two agents examining the glass and a third taking statements. Armsmaster was there, as had been said, and when he spotted us he walked over to meet us halfway.

"Mr. Hebert," he said, "Head of Hiring and Union Representative for the Dockworkers Association, father of Princess," he gestured to me, "The PRT suspects that the Azn Bad Boyz are likely to target you to get to Princess after she defeated Lung." I clenched my fist. "As with the Bad Boyz on the offensive with this attack that we were not prepared for, we're stretched too thin to have a guard on you 24/7."

"You're leading up to something," Dad. "There's no reason to say that to my face if you're not."

"I've been instructed to offer to take you into Protective Custody and escort you to PRT Headquarters if you accept," Armsmaster stated clearly.

"I can't just leave the Association in a crisis," Dad replied without a beat, suddenly more determined.

"Why you specifically," Opal spoke up. "As the leader of this Protectorate, I'm sure that there are better uses of your time in a situation such as this."

"Part of being a good leader," Armsmaster began, "is knowing who is most effective in what situations. Another is knowing when to delegate. Miss Militia is more than adequately skilled at directing the Protectorate. I, meanwhile, am most adept at moving through this city quickly while defending a singular individual from potential attacks. However, since you've refused..."

He had the decency to look away for a moment. "Director Piggot requested that I inform you that we'd be better able to justify posting a 24-hour guard if Princess were to join the Wards. That said... "

He paused to breathe, "In the interests of not alienating you by trying to force your hand," he gestured to me again, "we tried to station a temporary armed guard at your house and he was struck by lightning out of a clear sky the second he stepped onto the property. He's fine, but he refuses to try again."

"Yeah, that's in the wards I set up," I admitted. "Step within the bounded field with a weapon without permission from me or Dad and you get zapped. If he'd wanted to kill us his crotch would have rotted off," I added. Some of Caster's curses were _mean_.

Dad and Armsmaster both looked at me with mouths open in slack-jawed horror.

"Taylor," Dad said, "from now I want to know exactly what you're doing when you work magic in the house. So that I can veto it."

"Yes. I'm going to have to politely ask that you replace that effect with something else." Armsmaster said. "That, uh… I can understand… To a degree, but I think that counts as excessive force and..." He actually looked a little green.

"Anyway," Armsmaster said, "I doubt you'll be getting much work done until the crisis has passed. If you have an escort when you leave the house and do most of your work from home you should be fine."

"I could throw some wards on your office," I said.

"We'll discuss it at home," Dad said neutrally.

"Speaking of which," Armsmaster said, "There's been some talk of establishing a curfew. You'll be wanting to send the workers home… those of them that still have homes, and get home yourself. I'd offer to escort you, but as you've turned down the offer of protective custody I'm needed elsewhere. However, before I leave."

He reached into a hidden compartment in his armor and pulled out a small watch. "I was hoping you'd be here, Princess. This is a little something I've been working on for the last couple of weeks," he said. "It's adapted from the technology used in the Endbringer Battle Wristbands. The idea is to make it easier for independent heroes to collaborate with the PRT and Protectorate during emergency situations. Might as well test it now."

He gestured to some buttons on it. "This one issues a priority call to the PRT's emergency line. This one to the city's emergency services, this one activates a police scanner, this one is a GPS assisted map of the city, this one with the light glows red when there's an emergency, pressing it will provide details. The button under it is an emergency beacon, if you're in trouble it'll immediately alert the PRT and anyone else who has one of these watches." He cleared his throat. "The final button flashes an authorization code marking you as being PRT affiliated, in case the curfew does go into effect. Do not lose it or let it get broken because I'm going to want it back when this is over."

I took it carefully in my hands. "Why-"

"Because it'll make any assistance you attempt to offer in this time go more smoothly. Now I need to go deliver another set of these watches to New Wave. Princess," Armsmaster said, "do not be afraid to call for help, and make sure that your collaterals are safe."

And then he left. We stayed at the dockyard for another hour, making sure people could get home before everyone who lived in our part of town went home in a group.

I wish that had been the end of it, but I'd been seen out and about with enough people that… I knew that Lisa was safe, she'd been with the Dallons when the bombs had started going off, but…

Shortly after Dad and I got home, I ducked out to check on Brian.

 **Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

Brian was not at his apartment.

He wasn't at his father's house either-I hadn't spoken much with Mr. Laborn, but Aisha hadn't heard from him since before the bombing. She had been trying very hard to not look worried about him.

And that's when I started to get worried. It was getting late, and I wasn't sure if he was okay or not.

I wasn't sure where else I could look for him… My heart skipped a beat when I briefly considered the morgue or wherever it was that the city was keeping bodies of people who'd been killed in the bombing before they could be claimed. I didn't… No, bad Taylor. Don't assume the worst until everything else has been ruled out.

Of in the distance, I could make out an awkward shape slowly heading over the skyline towards the part of town that Lisa lived in. I flew over to it, not sure what I would encounter…

It turned out to be a very grumpy Lisa, held in a bridal carry by Glory Girl. Lisa noticed me before Vicky did. "Fancy meeting you here," she said in the deadest of deadpans.

"Lisa, hey, uh… by any chance, you wouldn't have-"

Lisa held up a finger and then pulled out her cell phone. She hit some buttons and then spoke into it. "Hey, Brian? I'm being held up hundreds of feet over the ground because Glory Girl wouldn't take no for an answer when she offered to fly me home after being stranded at her house all afternoon… Yeah. Yeah other than that I'm fine, nothing we didn't talk about earlier… Hey, I'm gonna hand over the phone and I want you to tell your girlfriend that you didn't get exploded."

Lisa handed me the phone, and I took it to my ear. "Uh, hello?"

 _"Uh, Taylor, hey,"_ Brian said awkwardly. _"Yeah, I'm fine. Was with some co-workers when the bombs went off, I'm crashing with them until morning."_

"Okay," I said feeling an immediate sense of relief. "I was worried. You weren't at your apartment and your sister said she hadn't heard from you-"

 _"I called Aisha hours ago, to make sure she was okay,"_ Brian interrupted.

"Then why…?" Oh, that little… "Anyway, I uh… I'm gonna give the phone back to Lisa now."

I awkwardly handed the phone back. Lisa took it, said "bye now" into the receiver, hung up, and pocketed it. "Taylor," she said. "Something big and terrible happened today and it makes sense to be worried, but worry can wait until after you go home and get some sleep."

"Lisa-"

"I'm serious," Lisa interrupted. "Trust me, we all know that Lung's gonna be gunning for your head. You're going to need to be well rested."

"She makes a lot of sense, Princess," Glory Girl supplied.

I sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

"Now then, my graceful steed," Lisa said to the heroine carrying her, "my apartment is in that building over there. Chop chop," she finished with a clap.

"You know, I could drop you at any time," the other blonde said as she flew off in the direction of Lisa's apartment.

I flew back home and crashed the second I got to bed.


	26. Chapter 21

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

"...And, done!" I said when I finished the new, upgraded wards and spells on Brian's apartment. "Now, if someone comes in here after you to try and hurt me by hurting you, their blood temperature will rise by five degrees, they'll lose all sexual desire and potency for a month, they'll be mildly electrocuted, evicted from the premises, and if they try again they'll get it again and be cursed to die alo-"

I quickly turned around and grabbed my tail in my arms, glaring at Brian's little sister, who had tried to yank it again. "You. Don't push it. I'm still mad at you."

"You put the fluffy tail in front of me," Aisha said, "I'm gonna touch it."

I rolled my eyes. "Anyway," I said as I reverted the Caster Install. "Now I just need to throw in a few runes to make sure that the spells can distinguish between people who are doing it of their own free will and people who are forced into attacking." I drew the Lancer card and prepared to Install when Brian, who seemed a bit uneasy about all of this, interrupted.

"Are you sure that this much is… I mean, why the… Seems a bit excessive," he finished awkwardly.

As I installed Lancer, I decided against telling him that the suite used to include a crotch melting curse. I'd told Lisa about it this morning when I upgraded her apartment's protective spells and her exact words had been 'Taylor? You're one of my best friends and I love you but what the _fuck_ is wrong with you?'

"Young Mister Laborn," Opal said as I started tracing runes in the air with my fingers, "this is the bare minimum that my Master is comfortable leaving those she's close to with at this time. If I had my way, we'd be using instantaneous organ necrosis curses or turning people into newts in such a way that they will _not_ get better."

"How do you get better from turning into a newt?" Aisha asked.

"I have no idea," Opal admitted. "It's just something I've heard about from time to time."

I finished up the context-sensitive runic array. "So, now that this had been taken care of… I really wish I could stay longer...," And I did, "but I'm a superhero in a Warzone. I've got responsibilities. Are you sure you don't want me to put up some security around your dad's house?"

"I'm sure," Brian said neutrally.

"Besides," Aisha chimed in, "a black guy in a poor neighborhood hiring someone to work some voodoo-witchcraft on his house is the kind of thing that makes the skinheads make a house call." That… She sounded rather upbeat about something that I don't think you should be upbeat about.

Opal, it seemed, was about to go on a rant about how the magic I did was different from voodoo magic but she got cut off by an alert from the watch that Armsmaster had given me.

"Emergency," I said gesturing to the lit up button. "Gotta go, I'll call later."

I left the apartment and hit the button to get the message.

 **F/KLPT**

I twirled gracefully through the air, firing off six bullets and destroying six guns before hitting the asphalt in a perfect three-point landing.

I'd landed just in time for Glory Girl and Aegis to knock down three gangers each.

I stood up, ejected the Archer card, and cast my binding spell on the downed enemies. "Check."

A couple of PRT Agents came up from behind us and started looking over the downed Bad Boyz for signs of recent surgeries.

The "emergency" call hadn't been a real emergency. Rather, the PRT had gotten an anonymous tip-off, claiming that the villains were mobilizing, so now the PRT wanted to take out the Bad Boyz fast before we had a full-fledged gang-war in the city, so they'd deputized every hero in the city and sent everyone who was willing to chase Bad Boy sightings.

"You know," Glory Girl said to me, "it's a bit funny that your least lethal card is the one whose power is guns."

"The best way to avoid inflicting unintentional harm," Opal interjected on my behalf, "is to be as precise as possible. An outlaw he may have been, but William Bonney was a legend in part for his incomparable speed and accuracy with a handgun."

"So uh," I said, "I've been meaning to ask, how are things at home after…?"

"Awkward and uncomfortable," Vicky deadpanned.

"Yeah… so how is Panacea, anyway?"

"I uh, haven't seen her much," she admitted. "She's been leaving early for the hospital every morning and staying late. Normal work hours don't apply in a crisis or something like that."

I nodded.

Aegis, who was in charge of this group, was talking to one of the PRT Agents while the other Agents loaded the gangers, who it seemed were bomb-free, into the back of a transport van. Then he took to the air and floated up over to the two of us.

"There's a little more gang activity in this area," he explained. "They want us to-"

He was cut off by being shot in the neck, which made him fall to the street. I jumped back, my heart beating fast at the shock of the sudden attack, and immediately re-installed Archer.

With the power of Archer came clarity. My racing pulse slowed and my awareness of the area expanded as I began to see with the Eye of Archer's Mind. Checking Aegis' already… Well, healing wasn't the right word, but his already mending neck wound to get an idea of where the shooter was.

Glory Girl had already taken to the sky in pursuit when I saw our sniper, perched on the roof of a warehouse.

On instinct, I raised my revolver and fired three simultaneous bullets with a whisper of "Thunderer" on my lips.

The sniper fired at me. One of my bullets perfectly impacted and neutralized his. A second hit the scope on his rifle. The third went right up his barrel.

One second later, as he dropped his gun in shock, Glory Girl settled down right behind him, grabbed him by the collar, and flew him down to us just as Aegis pushed himself back up.

This close, I could make him out a bit better. He was wearing body-armor over his Bad Boy colored outfit, a red and green bandana covering his face. "Heh. Guess I'm caught," he said coldly.

"Yeah, you're caught..." Aegis said weakly. Seemed his throat had gotten damaged.

"You're really calm for somebody who just got caught shooting at some young Superheroes," Glory Girl observed.

"There's a bomb in my chest," he said with disturbing calmness. "I'm dead either way, once Bakuda finds out that the hero-trap failed." Behind us, one of the PRT agents cursed.

"Look," I said, "if you're being forced to work for them against your will, we can-"

He laughed at me. "I was there."

"What?"

"I was there when you were flipping the fuck out," he explained while looking right at me. "Back in January. A Panicked white girl running around near Lung's territory… My brother, my cousin, and I… We had to put a stop to that. It was my idea to wipe the puke into your hair."

My stomach clenched, but I took a breath and let it pass. "And?"

"My brother's in prison after you and Glory Hole made him squeal and spill where one of the bitch-breaking farms was. My cousin's dead-Lung tracked him down and killed him for desertion after he ran the night you fought Lung… Āyí blamed me for that. Said it never would have happened if I hadn't been a bad influence on him. Really, I think it's your fault though."

I blinked. "How?"

"I just noticed," he said, "that things started to go to shit for the Bad Boyz in general and my family in particular when you pulled that stick out of your ass and chased us off… My family's all either gone or hates me… I figured I had nothing to lose volunteering for a suicide mission. Was hoping I'd get a chance to put a bullet in your head," he finished. I could practically taste the hate and bile on his words

"Your choices and your family's choices are yours," I said shakily.

He laughed again. "Saito Repairs."

My eyes widened. "What!?"

Oh my god, I'd completely forgotten about Mister Saito.

"The fucker who runs the place has been holed up there since the offensive started," the prisoner explained. "Been hiding neighbors in his basement, barricaded the doors… fought off three attempts to conscript him by force." He laughed bitterly. "Lung, and Bakuda, and the Oni… They were getting frustrated, then someone said he saw you hanging you there. Now Lung's heading there to kill the fucker himself."

And that was when I figured my heart had stopped, Archer's senses or not.

"Also," he finished, "I'm wearing a toe ring that lets me manually set off my bomb and I just activated it. In conclusion, fuck off Princess!"

Then he started twitching.

Glory Girl's own eyes went wide and she chucked the guy back in the direction of the warehouse he'd been perched on. As his body distorted, I ejected the Archer Card and with a wave of Opal encased him in a bubble of prana to contain the blast.

He went off and the bubble quickly turned crimson, then shattered.

And we were left staring at a pool of gore in the pavement.

"Princess?" Aegis said as he came up behind me, voice still weak.

"I need to go," I said. "If I can get there fast enough I can..." I can't believe I forgot about Mister Saito...

"I don't think-"

"I know exactly where the shop is! While you're finishing here and calling in about this, I can fly there, drop an emergency beacon, and start setting up defensive wards to fortify the place."

I didn't wait for a response before I took off flying towards the edge of the docks.

 **F/KLPT**

Saito repairs looked abandoned, with boards over the windows and doors. On the other hand, if Lung had been here it'd probably have been burned down, so…

I approached the roof, only for a man in an urban camo hooded poncho to leap up from under the raised edges on the roof and take aim right at me with an arrow knocked to a high-quality modern sporting bow.

And then he lowered it. "Sorry. Thought you were one of Lung's."

I landed on the roof, pressing the emergency beacon button on my watch as I did.

Mister Saito lowered his hood. "Taylor? Or, should I say Princess? What are you doing here?"

"Lung's on his way here," I said. "He found out that I know you and he's coming to get you to get to me."

"I see," Mister Saito acknowledged calmly.

"But, the Protectorate already knows he's coming," I explained. I pulled out my Caster Card. "if you head back inside, I can throw up some spells to keep him out until they get here and..."

Mister Saito wasn't moving from his position.

"Taylor? May I tell you something?"

"Uh, yeah..."

"Ever since I was a small child," Mister Saito began, "all I've ever wanted to do is help people. Do you know why Kyushu sank?"

"Leviathan sank it," I answered automatically.

"Well, that's technically true," Mister Saito explained, "but, some experts suggest that the beast would have wandered off with the island mostly intact if it hadn't been held there by a drawn-out duel with another monster who vaguely resembled a Western-style dragon."

Mister Saito took a long, drawn-out breath. "Countless people were lost at sea, my homeland suffered a blow it will probably never recover from, and the man I admired most in the world gave his life, because Lung, that man… that _inhuman thing_ chose to engage in an extended battle with an invincible monster instead of focusing on evacuating or helping others to evacuate as would have been sensible."

Mister Saito looked sad. And tired. "I spent a lifetime refining my skills so as to best help others, moved to a new land where I felt I could make the most of what I had… To find a significant portion of my new home town under the shackles of the monster who had so much blood on his hands. Who spent so much time forcing everyone who even looked like they were from East Asia to join or support his gang… For the past few years, I've been forced to keep my head down, lest I attract Lung's attention… I'm so tired of it, Taylor. All I want to do is help people. If Lung's coming for me regardless, I might as well face him."

"No!" I shouted. "Lung's… Lung's a monster. He'll..."

"Taylor," Mister Saito said, "I assure you, I can handle myself better than you might think. If you're at all worried, then go inside," he gestured to the door on the roof, "and work your magic to keep my neighbors safe while I do what I feel mu-"

He was cut off by sudden automatic gunfire. It tore through him like, like…

The gunfire went on for nearly a minute, or at least that's what it felt like, watching the hot lead force his body to convulse like a live-current was going through it.

And then it quieted, and Mister Saito's riddled corpse collapsed on the roof. I… I couldn't look away. I…

"The irony here, _Ohime-sama_ ," Opal literally growled at Lung's voice, "is that he may have had a chance to flee, or at least die in a more dignified manner, if you hadn't tried to warn him of my arrival."

There's an old short story. I think it was adapted into a computer game at some point. I don't remember the whole thing, but there's a passage that I recalled, just after Lung said that… 'There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex,' the story's rogue AI villain had said, 'if the word hate was engraved on each nanoangstrom… it would not equal one one-billionth of the hatred I feel for humans at this micro-instant.'

I don't think that the computer in that story could begin to comprehend how much rage I felt in this moment.

I turned, clenching the Caster Card in my fist so hard that I was bleeding, to face Lung and the dozen men he'd brought with him. I could barely make him out through the tears welling up in my eyes. "...I'm going... kill you..."

"What was that, brat?" Lung called back to me. He sounded like he was laughing. The fucker hadn't even done his own dirty work.

"I SAID I'M GOING TO KI-!"

I cut off when I noticed Mister Saito getting back up. He was a little shaky, but… He pulled off his tattered poncho and tore off the bullet-riddled tank-top he'd had on underneath it. Bullets were popping out of his flesh. I could have sworn I could make out something shiny in his bullet wounds.

"How?" I asked, taken aback.

"Not everyone dies when they're killed, Princess."

"Miniaturized blades that reinforce the body and knit together damaged flesh..." Lung said in understanding. "That's Muramasa's technology."

"He called it A.V.A.L.O.N.," the now mended Mister Saito, shirtless with rapidly growing hair but otherwise healthy and whole. "I never did learn what the acronym stood for, but I know that Father was very proud of it… My only complaint is that the healing feature accelerates the metabolism. There's supposed to be something to compensate, but the sped up hair-growth is a bit inconvenient when you have to dye your hair." Then I noticed that Mister Saito's roots were Orange.

"I hope that you don't think a piece of decades-old tinker-tech makes you my equal," Lung said menacingly.

"Don't worry," Mister Saito-Mister Miyazaki, if he really was Muramasa's son-said. "I have some tricks of my own."

He held out a hand, clasped around something invisible. Energy formed in his hand, tracing out the outline of a katana with something not unlike an engine at the crossguard. "Trace..." Mister Saito started. Purple cubes surged through it in a wave and a solid sword took its place "...on!"

The engine-like-thing began humming and frost rapidly formed across the katana's blade, with mist flowing off of it.

"Projection Magecraft..." Opal said. "Princess, when we're done with this brute we're going to have to have a long talk with Mister Saito."

As the swordsman took a stance, I held up my Class Card. "Install: Caster."

Once I'd finished my transformation into Tamamo-no-Mae, I took my place next to the cursed-tinker's son.

*End*

AN: Yeah. Muramasa was an Alt Kiritsugu, Shirou Saito is this world's Shirou Emiya. How he can use magic in Earth Bet shall be explained in a later chapter.


	27. Chapter 22

**Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

Mister Saito jumped from the roof and landed on his feet in front of Lung and slashed at the larger man's chest. Lung leaned back to avoid the slash but I wasn't able to make out what happened next as I myself jumped down to join the fight. Lung's minions swarmed over to me, a dozen or so men who'd expended their gun's munitions on a failed execution.

Each of them had a knife, however, which they pulled. Caster wasn't meant for hand to hand combat, but I was still okay at it with her card installed. I was easily able to lean back and avoid the initial slashes, parry another by meeting his forearm with mine, and a well-placed sandal to the crotch drove back another and bought me some space.

I took a second to judge the scenario. The thugs who weren't cupping themselves were trying to stare me down, apparently judging best how to approach me as I judged them.

Further up the street, Lung was covered in metallic scales… I was impressed that Mister Saito had actually managed to drive Lung so far back in so short a time. Lung shot at swordsman with a blast of flame, but Mister Saito swung at the flame with his sword and the fire went out. It was almost like the sword ate the fire.

The tip of his blade scratched the pavement as he pulled back and frost started forming where it made contact. I think he'd be okay, at least for now, and-

My train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a flying mirror bashing someone in the head.

"Princess," Opal in the form of Tamamo's mirror said as my attention was drawn back to her and the thug she'd just bopped over the head. "Eat the eye candy later, we have work to do."

"I wasn't-"

I didn't get to finish my thought because the guy that Opal smacked wasn't the only one who'd worked up some nerve. They were all rushing me again and I didn't have much room to back up with Saito's shop and the civilians hiding inside behind me. I was decent enough at fighting, but Caster thrived at witchcraft and I needed room for that…

Caster was a shapeshifter. I could tell that she never used it based on the way her powers felt, but the power was still there…

I shoved one of the men back and then focused. In an instant, I was smaller. A fox on all fours darting between the legs of one of Lung's executioners. A few bounds later and I'd put enough distance to return to my human form and turn back to face them, drawing one of Caster's paper talismans.

"Guys?" one of the Bad Boyz started. "This is starting to look a lot like a story my grandma used to tell me."

"It can't be," another said. "Kitsune are supposed to turn into hot women, not pasty-skinned mops."

"Kitsune?" the first said again. "No, no. Kumiho. Malevolent fox spirits. Shapeshifting, magic powers. They stalk cemeteries and like to seduce boys and young men to eat their hearts and livers."

"She could be a huli jing?" A third young man said.

"She not a fox spirit!" Lung shouted from behind me. "She's a little bitch appropriating our iconography when she plays dress up with her tinker-tech!" And then there was the sound of a blade slicing flesh and I assumed that Mister Saito had it handled.

A man, not one of the ones who'd spoken, ran at me with his knife.

So I tossed my paper talisman at him and he fell to the ground as all of his strength was drained away.

"No, fuck this. I'm not messing with magic," the first man to speak up said. And then he took off running down a side alley. The man who'd called me too ugly to be a kitsune looked left and right and then followed.

I summed six paper talismans to each hand and held them up. "Look, I'm still kind of pissed about you all shooting my friend, but I'm more concerned about the lizard back there. If any of you are suddenly feeling superstitious like your friends..."

And most of them ran off. One stayed behind long enough to grab the guy I'd paralyzed by the legs and drag him off.

Opal rejoined me and I turned to face Lung.

Mister Saito was good at fighting capes.

In the time since Lung had spoken, he'd progressed to the point where he was a steel-scaled giant.

Trapped in a cage made of giant cruciform swords.

Mister Saito was about twenty or so feet away with his bow out. He held his motorized ice katana in one hand and it shifted. First, the blade straightened and shortened, then the handle extended out so that it resembled a spear before it shrank down to something that could be accurately called an arrow, which he knocked to his bow and fired.

The arrow sank into Lung's belly and ice formed around it. Lung roared and pulled the arrow from the wound, but caged in as he was that was all he could do.

Mister Saito created another sword and turned it into another arrow, and I figured that for the time being he had it handled.

But Lung escalated, growing stronger the more he was hurt and the longer a fight dragged out-he'd gained an inch in the time I'd been watching.

So, while Mister Saito peppered the dragon with ice-cold arrows, I focused on a branch of caster's magic that I hadn't dabbled much in.

Caster had mantras meant to bolster the power of her spells, and I started chanting one called Merciful sky.

Lung snarled. He shoved against the blades keeping him caged in and shattered them all.

He then leaped over Mister Saito and landed right in front of me. He struck me square in the belly with his closed fist.

Time slowed. I could feel muscles tear, organs rupture, and my spine shatter.

It hurt more than anything I could begin to describe.

Time sped up again. I hit the ground, and I couldn't feel anything from the waist down.

"Ooo… Little… Bit-Ch," Lung said, his mouth too distorted for proper words at this point. "Prey preten. Ooo thin-kch that ooh can weah ears an tail, speak our lan-goo-age in fake spells, be ayshun?" He completely ignored Mister Saito jumping on his back and burying a sword in it. "It dough-ehnt werk liek that. Ooo er nothing! Jus little Bit-Ch! Wit-ought 'dragon-slaying sword,' ooo cannot win. I.. Am a… Dragon. Ooo… Are… Nothing!"

The whole time he was basically ignoring that Mister Saito was stabbing him in the back.

He reached behind himself, grabbed mister Saito in one of his giant hands, and threw him. Mister Saito would be okay. He'd shrugged off worse just a few minutes ago. I didn't have to worry…

Immediately after throwing Mister Saito, Mirror-Opal bashed Lung in the face. It was less effective against a giant dragon man than against a normal human.

It did, however, buy me time to slowly wave my hands around and bring them together while saying something in Japanese.

This got Lung's attention. But also Opal's, and she caught on to what it meant and came down to meet my hands just in time to blast Lung with a ball of white light, enhanced by my mantra.

Lung flinched, taking a step back.

And shrunk an inch.

"What did you do?" He could talk normally again.

"It's called… Distant Land..." I had to pause, as I was breathing quite heavily, "of the Torn Blossom. It's a… retributive curse. If I'm hurt bad... you get infected with… magic poison. Gonna be a… Nasty one after that Mantra… Too."

"I'm going to break every bone in your body," Lung said, his voice dripping with subtle rage. "And all of your little toys. I'll make you watch while I kill the son of Muramasa… And then I'll take you into my home. Shelter you while your body mends, and as soon as you recover, I'll send you to my farm where you'll be broken down into a simple plaything." He laughed. "Someone out there will pay top dollar to have a former heroine as their pet. Even one as plain and ugly as you."

There were then six swords embedded in Lung's back.

"I won't let you hurt her," I could hear Mister Saito state as a matter of fact. "Not any more than you already have."

"I suppose that it's all the same to me if you want to die first!" Lung shouted, and then he turned around and headed for Mister Saito, throwing a fireball at him.

It was then that the pain started catching up with me and my vision went blurry.

"Princess," Opal began. She was still in my hands. "You have severe internal injuries. You need to revert the installation so I can heal you."

I shook my head. It took me a second to answer her though. "No… Help me up."

"Princess I must-"

"Help… Me... Up."

Reluctantly, Opal started levitating. Still, in my grip, I was able to sit up and raise her over my head. After a moment I was levitating what I think was a few feet over the street.

"You're… Wrong… Lung!" I shouted. "I'm… Not… Nothing. You might… be a dragon… But… right now... I… am… a… Goddess!"

And then I started chanting while caster's paper talismans were summoned and set to their work. "Gods in Izumo, this is the sign of freedom and purification."

"You dare!" I heard Lung shout.

"The sacred treasure, the Mirror of Uka," I continued to intone with no heed to the dragon even as I heard his rushed footsteps coming my way.

"Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu on the Weight Stone under the Sunlit Watery Heaven!"

As I invoked the eightfold blessings, several things happened.

First, taking in the godly amounts of mana and life energy that Caster's Noble Phantasm brought in immediately healed my severe internal injuries. All the pain was gone and I could once more feel my legs. My vision also cleared back up, allowing me to see the look on Lung's face change from fury to confusion to terror as the sky darkened and the streets and buildings melted away to be replaced by a dark field filled with dozens of blue shrine gates.

"Oh..." He said. "Oh shit."

"Let's get something straight, Lung. I'm not a Parahuman," I explained. "I'm not a tinker. I'm not a little girl playing pretend. I'm a real Magical Girl. With real Magic, drawn from the Gods and Heroes of Old. I don't need Arondite to beat you," I finished, "you're the one who never stood a chance."

"...The Old Gods are real… You've stolen the power of the Old Gods… You bitch."

Well, I mean I had technically killed a manifestation of an avatar of Amaterasu to gain my Caster Card, so technically…

While Lung was still momentarily stunned by the realization that gods and magic are real, I quickly rushed past him to Mister Saito.

Mister Saito himself was breathing heavily. He had a nasty bit of cooked flesh on his chest, around a gash that seemed to be having trouble healing, and he was sweating profusely. His hair had grown a couple of inches.

"Are you okay?" I asked even though I could clearly see that he wasn't.

"I'm fine…" he said. "Just a little tired."

Without a word, I touched his shoulder and channeled a good chunk of the mana and vital energy that I'd gathered with eightfold blessings. His burn and slash wound healed right up and he quickly recovered his Stamina.

I summoned six paper talismans.

"Lung's having an existential crisis right now," I explained, "but he's not shrinking so this is still a fight." If anything, he'd grown slightly. "I figure if we both hit him with the biggest thing we've got at the same time, we be able to do more damage than he can heal and force him out of the fight."

Mister Saito nodded and held out his hand. He slowly formed a court sword that immediately ignited in blue at the edges as it finished manifesting. "This was something my father was working on before he died. The blade is made of an ultra-dense synthetic tinker material that's been honed and sharpened to the point that it passively slices the molecules in the air around it as they brush against the edge of the blade. He'd intended to create a version so sharp that the cutting edge extended beyond the visible part of the blade, as a weapon that might slay the Endbringers, but..."

That… That reminded me of a book I'd read once, actually.

Mister Saito grabbed the hilt of the sword and transformed it into a glowing blue arrow which he knocked to his bow.

As he drew it back and prepared to fire, I sent my paper talismans to encircle Lung. I'd tried this spell against Lancer, but it'd failed because she was too agile. A dazed Lung, however, was encased in an explosion of ice.

Which Mister Saito's arrow cut straight through.

And then exploded in a burst of blue fire.

A badly singed but clearly still breathing Lung hit the ground just in time for the field of shrine gates to fade back into 'the border of the Brockton Bay docks district.

At the edge of where my Noble Phantasm's effect ended was the rest of my group-Glory Girl and Aegis.

And also a separate group, consisting of Armsmaster, Triumph, and Vista.

"What the hell was that?" The youngest Ward said while miming the existence of a dome with her hands.

"Literal god-tier magic," I answered casually.

"Okay then," Vista replied.

Armsmaster approached the downed Lung and checked his vitals. Apparently satisfied by what he found, he produced a large syringe from the halberd and-

"Wait!" I shouted. "I poisoned him a little bit ago," I explained. "I don't think it'll have run it's course yet. It shouldn't kill him because of his healing factor, but I don't know how it'll react to your tranqs." If it'd react. A moment after I finished explaining I remembered the poison was the result of a curse and might not work like regular poison. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Armsmaster fiddled with the Halberd. "I'll hit him with a half dose, better safe than sorry."

"Okay then," I said, "now Mister-Yip!"

I turned around and glared. Vista had gotten behind me somehow-damned spacewarpers-and yanked on my tail. "Hey, it's real."

"God damn it, why does everyone want to grab my tail!?"

"Because it's fluffy," Glory Girl said as she flew up beside me. "Just let her have this. Little V was breaking Bakuda's legs with a tire iron when Armsmaster's group got your beacon."

"Really now?" I said while taking a closer look at the young blonde.

"Yeah," Vista said with a smile. "Between that and what you did to Lung," Lung was now being locked up in a PRT prisoner transport van, "this is basically over. Oni Lee's still at large but I've seen his file: He's basically a robot. Without someone to point him at a goal, he's almost harmless. So, who's Mister Abs?"

"He uh… He's Mister Saito. He runs the repair shop," I gestured to Saito Repairs, "he's a family friend that I need to have a long talk with."

"The Protectorate are probably going to have questions for the both of us," Mister Saito said. "And if the danger has passed, I have some neighbors who'll need help moving back into their homes and/or repairing things damaged in raids. If you're insistent on a long talk, it might be best to do it in a few days, once we're both recuperated from the events of this afternoon."

Yeah. You know what. That made sense. "Okay."

About an hour later Mister Saito and I had both given our story about how the encounter with Lung had gone and, once dismissed, I flew home and took a nap.

When I woke up, Opal complained that I'd drooled on her again.

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 **Topic: A New Thread**

 **In: Boards ► ► Boards ► Places ► America ►Brockton Bay**

 **Princess** (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)

Posted On May 6th 2011:

So, a little bit ago a friend and I were fighting Lung and some of his goons. I was using my caster card(the foxy one with the blue robes) and one of them started thinking I might be a Kumiho and ran off once I started really using my magic.

The next morning I got up to go jogging and found candles and a bunch of Korean food on my porch with a note that was half apology and half begging me not to eat the anonymous gift-giver's heart and/or liver.

I'm not a Kumiho. I'm not gonna eat anyone. Still kinda pissed off about shooting my friend, but he's not pressing charges if the city doesn't so... I'm not saying you're forgiven, if you're reading this, but I'd really like the recipe for that beef dish.


	28. Chapter 23

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

As I sipped an exotic blend with a name that I couldn't pronounce, all I could think of was that Mister Saito could brew a really good cup of tea.

"Is all of this really necessary?" It had been a little bit since Lung had been defeated, about a week and a half. Opal and I were currently visiting with Mister Saito, who'd cut his hair back to its original length but hadn't dyed it black yet. Well, _I_ was visiting with Mister Saito.

Opal was running I don't even know how many diagnostic scans on Mister Saito.

"Mister Saito," she explained in response to the man's question, "you used quite a lot of projection magecraft. Ignoring how absolutely inefficient projection magecraft is, this entire reality is saturated with an anti-magic effect. My princess is only able to work spells at all because as a device infused with the Second Sorcery I can transcend such limits."

"I just figured I was a parahuman," Saito admitted with a shrug, Opal's laser light scanner tracing a grid across his face. "My father kept insisting that I was something different, but I didn't know what else I could be."

"Well, you're most certainly not a Parahuman," Opal stated with certainty. "Not a trace of those brain tumors that they've got. You do, however, have 27 magic circuits of a quality suggesting regular use."

"Are those the extra nerves?" Mister Saito asked. "When I was first learning to use my powers, I was running some kind of energy through my nervous system but feedback from A.V.A.L.O.N. said it was bypassing some pseudo-neurons that I have but most people don't."

"That is a drastic over-simplification," Opal explained, "but yes, that would be what I'm referring to..." she stopped scanning him. "Now, you bear a certain physical resemblance to a few individuals in my databanks, would you mind answering a few questions?"

"I suppose that's why we're here," Mister Saito said good-naturedly.

"First: Are you now or have you ever been affiliated with an Emiya Kiritsugu or the Emiya family?"

"No," Mister Saito replied. "I've never heard of them."

"What about the Ainsworth family?"

"No," Mister Saito answered again.

"...The Einzberns?"

"I think Gesellschaft has someone by that name working for them, but I've never met that person and I'd honestly prefer not to," the man said.

"...Who are Gesellschaft?"

"An international gang of parahuman terrorists and Neonazis, based in Europe," Mister Saito answered. "I've seen in the news that Taylor's had some conflict with the young woman working for Empire Eighty-Eight: Gesellschaft is their parent organization."

"...Well, that's concerning," Opal said after a moment. "Now, what about the Holy Grail War?"

"I know that the cup that Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples drank from during the Last Supper is believed by some Christians to have miraculous properties, but I've never heard of it being involved in a war."

Opal hummed. "Are you familiar with the phrase 'Unlimited Blade Works?' Do you know what a Noble Phantasm is? Is your body made of blades? Are you now or have you ever been the bone of your sword?"

Mister Saito blinked. "No offense, but that last bit sounded like someone with English as a second language was trying too hard to make an emotionally deep poem. No. I have no idea what any of that means. There are blades _in_ my body but it's made of flesh and blood like almost everyone else's."

"Okay then," Opal said.

She floated back toward me and placed one of her wings on her rim and leaned, miming someone leaning their head against their hand in thought. "Princess, Include the Saber Card."

"Why?"

"Because I have a hunch," Opal said with a shrug.

I fished Saber out from my card holster and touched it to Opal, who transformed into Arondight. "Mister Saito, if you could analyze and attempt to replicate this blade."

"I can't," Mister Saito replied. He was squinting. "Just looking at that sword gives me a migraine."

Opal ejected the card, which I caught and reholstered.

"Well, that's the last thing I could think of," Opal admitted. "This is, however, still very strange."

"Yeah," I continued, "Mister Saito, you're literally the only other person who uses magic that I've met."

"No," Opal interrupted, "what I mean is… comparing dates the Anti-Magic anomaly came into full effect roughly when Parahumans became to appear en mass and back when we attempted to heal Victoria her unusual magic resistance caused problems… I think that Parahumans might have something to do with the lack of magic in this world but Mister Saito is utterly unaffected despite having a parahuman-made creation in his body for over a decade at least. Also, he has an elemental affinity-an alignment as a Magus-that's _almost_ Sword but I can't tell how it's different and that's irritating."

"...What's my alignment as a Magus?" I asked, curious about it now that I knew it was a thing.

"It's difficult to describe it in words," Opal began. "At first I thought you were an average one, someone with affinities to the five traditional elements of Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Ether-but with more exposure to the flow of mana in your body, I think it's a bit more complicated than that. Though, suffice it to say, whatever term is eventually used to describe your alignment that it perfectly suits being a magical girl."

"A little over 17 years," Mister Saito corrected. " A.V.A.L.O.N. has been part of my body for over 17 years. For as long as I can remember in fact." He took a sip from his own cup of tea. "After keeping my origins secret for so long, it's nice to finally tell the truth."

"Well," I said, "if you want to share I'm here to listen."

"My story starts in 1994," He began. "I was a child. My earliest memory was being caught in a fire in the city of Fuyuki. I don't remember much before the fire… All I know is that I was the only survivor." He paused for a minute. "The only thing I recall clearly is that I was on the ground and an armored man with six swords on his person was looming over me. Then I blacked out. When I awoke I was recovering from surgery in Muramasa's lab."

"Muramasa, Miyazaki Eijirou, saved my life. I was on death's door and would have died without the nanomachines he implanted in my body. And then," Mister Saito continued, "as I had no one and nowhere to go he took me in and became my father."

"I suppose you could say that, as I don't remember my life before the fire, that the me I was before died and the me I am now was born at that time… Though, having all of my childhood firsts-first snow, first look at the ocean, and such-at seven instead of two, three, four, or five made things a bit awkward."

"Really?" I asked. "It doesn't seem that odd to me. My Mom used to tell stories about when she was a kid. Most of hers were at that age. I spent most of my time at home until then, too."

"Maybe it's just more common in the United States?" Mister Saito asked with a shrug. I shrugged back. "Most of what I told you before is true. Except that until I came to America, my name was Miyazaki Shirou, and that before my father died I lived in Fuyuki, not Kobe. My father was my favorite hero growing up because he was my father, but I was truthful when I said that I admired him for his dedication to save as many people as possible and keep saving everyone in spite of his belief that he was cursed." Mister Saito smiled fondly. "And I don't have anything to compare to, but I think that he was a good father."

"For as long as I can remember, I wanted to help people like my father did," he continued, "at first it was out of admiration, but over time I came to realize that I was at my happiest when I was making other people happy-it's why I do home and appliance repair. It's work that needs doing and people appreciate it."

"After my father died-after Leviathan sank Kyushuu and the resulting waves flooded Fuyuki, I had to go into hiding. He had enemies. I had nightmares about tofu for a month after learning about one particularly heated battle he found himself involved in. But even in hiding, I kept practicing. My powers. My swordsmanship. My archery. After I became an adult, I moved to America because it's more open to independent heroes and there's less risk of being kidnapped and brainwashed by the CUI. I came to Brockton Bay because it seemed like it could use one more hero… But then Lung was here." Mister Saito twitched, just a bit. "And I had to keep my head down, as I wasn't sure that I'd be able to defeat him… Now that he's gone, though..."

"We should go fight Nazis together sometime," I offered. "Considering how Rune reacted to Lancer's spear and use of runic magic, she'll probably come after you for being an Asian man with a power similar to Allfather's, and to be honest she's irritating enough that I could use some help bringing her in."

Luckily I'd already given Mister Saito's home and business the same wards and protections I'd given my own home, Lisa and Brian's apartments, and New Wave. It'd been scary how fast they'd all agreed to have magic wards that electrocuted the crap out of anyone who entered the home with intent to harm the residences before I remembered what happened to Vicky's aunt.

"I'll consider it, but right now I'm still considering my options," Mister Saito said neutrally. "The Protectorate gave me an offer but I'm not sure I want to tie myself to a bureaucracy and I'm not sure if they'd let me keep the sho-"

Mister Saito was interrupted by a loud noise.

A noise that we'd drilled every so often.

A noise that meant that everyone in the city was in serious danger.

Immediately, Mister Saito got up and went into another room of his apartment.

"Princess, what's going on?"

"The Endbringer siren," I said as I stood up. "One of the Endbringers is coming. We need to get ready."

"You said that term a while ago," Opal questioned, "what's an Endbringer?"

Well, there's a question I never expected I'd have to answer. "One of three giant monsters that rampage and attacks a city every three or four months. One's a sea monster with macro-hydrokinesis, one's a living mountain with energy powers, and the last is an angel with psychic powers and a song that drives you crazy."

"Oh, that's what you call them," Opal replied. "I just assumed they were Types."

"Types?" I asked.

"Genocidal alien monsters invited to Earth to destroy humanity by a vengeful Gaea. Mostly dormant and there are plans for dealing with them but, well, if they get set off early bad things will happen." Opal was far too casual about that. "To give an example, Type Mercury, or ORT, is a vampiric spider from Mercury that's been lying dormant in South America for a while. My creator has a plan to deal with it though timing is key."

"...you know," I said with my head cocked, "Scion killed a giant spider-thing with weird crystal powers in South America back in the 80s," I answered with a bit of trivia. "If that was a Type I don't think that's what the Endbringers are. All he can do is drive them off."

"...I'm sorry," Opal said after a moment. "...I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I need time to process this. So, how about we go and hide in our heavily fortified basement until this all blows over and-"

"No, Opal," I said. "You know what happens when an Endbringer attacks? All the heroes and villains in a city put aside their differences and call a Truce to prevent as much damage and loss of life as possible. Heroes from out of town come in to help." I took a breath. "Remember when I beat Lung. Armsmaster called me Trump 10. That means I'm powerful and potentially incredibly dangerous too. I've got to be there."

"No," Opal said, "it's too dangerous."

"Opal, as a superhero I have a responsibility to help," I replied. "What kind of magical girl would I be if I didn't try to save as many people as I could?"

"Darn it," was Opal's only reply. I grabbed her and transformed.

"We'll call my Dad as soon as we get to the pre-battle meeting. Make sure he knows where I'm at, make sure he's safe." He'd probably either be making sure the Dockworkers and their families got to shelters or letting neighbors hide in our basement, since with Caster and Lancer's magic the house was practically indestructible.

Mister Saito came back. He'd changed from his work clothes into slacks and an open red jacket over a tank-top and had his bow at his back. "I keep up with Endbringer attacks," he said subtly. "It's likely that Leviathan is the one coming. I can't help but feel it appropriate that my first major outing is against the monster my father died trying to save people from."


	29. Chapter 24

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

So far, the hardest part of getting to the meeting zone was getting through the crowds of civilians. There'd been pamphlets, school assemblies, drills, and all kinds of other things meant to ensure that everyone knew what to do in the event of an Endbringer Attack, but people were still freaking out and ignoring the rules. People with more items than they could carry on them, kids carrying pets which weren't behaving, and even some jackass in his car.

I could have just flown over it, but I didn't want to leave Mister Saito behind. Eventually, we managed to make it to a section of street cordoned off with tape and police cars and managed to get pamphlets directing us to the meeting place.

Another taxing walk through panicking crowds later, we arrived at a six-story brick and mortar building with tinted windows. Just as we got there, my attention was drawn to the sky by something big and loud heading this way.

Dragon landed, a four-limbed mech-suit twice the size of a PRT van with a giant jet engine on it's back and equipped with missiles twice as long as a person was tall. Rather than going inside, she started staring out into the bay.

"I can't help but note how inelegant such large firearms are," Opal commented.

I rolled my eyes. "It's not about elegance. It's about hitting a giant monster hard enough to make it go home."

Mister Saito and I went inside. Shortly afterward, a loud crack of thunder rang out from outside but with how the storm in the bay had been progressing, I figured it couldn't be leviathan yet and paid it no mind.

I turned to Mister Saito and commented. "I think we chose the worst possible time to take down Lung for good."

"Or the best," Mister Saito replied, almost bitter.

"He wouldn't have shown up," came a woman's voice from behind us. I turned and was starstruck by the perfectly fit woman. The long, dark hair. The helmet, and the gray costume. The tower on her chest. The pinnacle of what it meant to be a brute. The invincible.

Alexandria.

"We approached him with an offer to join the Protectorate after Kyushu," she explained. _Alexandria was explaining something to me!_ "He refused, citing a belief that the Endbringers couldn't be defeated. It's highly unlikely that he would have shown up." She looked at me closer. "Princess, I presume?"

Alexandria knew my cape name! I wasn't able to answer verbally, so I nodded.

"The Triumvirate keeps an eye on rising stars. If you ever change your mind about Joining the Wards, any of us would be happy to have you in one of our cities."

"You can speak to the local Director, Piggot, about the bare minimum financial compensation my Master would require before I'd even begin to consider tying her up in a non-mystical organization," Opal interrupted.

I glared death at Opal in response.

"And a word of advice," the strongest and toughest woman in the world said as she and the other people I hadn't even noticed behind her moved onward. "This is the worst possible time to get starstruck."

I started doing some breathing exercises, moved out of the entryway, and looked around. The room was stocked with folding chairs and various capes. All the local heroes were here. The Protectorate, the Wards, New Wave-weirdly split up. Brandish was sitting off to the side, with Panacea, with the rest of Newave's adults sitting near bye discussing something, and Glory Girl was with the other junior members a little bit off. Glory Girl noticed me and waved me down.

I turned briefly to see if Mister Saito was still with me. He'd walked off and was speaking to a masked girl with a quiver full of large needles with a woman I recognized as Parian, a rogue with cloth control powers, standing near them. When Mister Saito conjured a bundle of black blades that seemed similar to the girl's needles and presented them to her, I turned around and joined Glory Girl.

"Hey," I said awkwardly.

"Yeah," Glory Girl said in response. A living natural disaster about to hit wasn't the time to be making small talk. "These are my cousins," she gestured to the other two New Wave kids, a blonde girl with red arrows and lines on her white costume and a young man with similar Blue Shield themed costume and dyed blue hair. "Laserdream and Shielder-or Crystal and Eric, since well, we're all public IDs here."

Why had I thought the blue haired one was called Lancer? I raised my hand in a half wave. "Princess. Or Taylor, if you'd prefer."

"Princess?" Opal interrupted. "I hate to do this, but I tried contacting your father. He is neither at home nor in his office."

That…

"He doesn't have a cellphone?" Crystal asked.

"Uh, no. We haven't had a cell in the house since my Mom died."

"I'm sorry," the blonde said, "how did she die?"

"You know how they say you shouldn't text and drive? Yeah..." I really didn't want to talk about Mom when I couldn't get into contact with Dad.

"Well, he's probably already in a shelter," the boy, Shielder said. "Right now, the most important thing to worry about is getting back to him in one piece and making sure that there's a city left to live in. And remember, you're not the only one here for the first time." There was a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Princess, if I may," Opal interjected, "there's still time to hide from the giant monster that's likely to kill everyone in this room based on what you've told me. It's even practical; after the carnage, opportunistic criminals are likely to crawl out of the woodwork, so ensuring there's at least one-"

"Opal, we're a bay city sitting on an aquifer," I interrupted. "Leviathan's a macro-hydrokinetic with weather control powers. If we don't stop him, don't drive him off, there won't be a city or anyone to live in it."

I pointed out to where Empire 88s representatives were. Kaiser, Hookwolf… I thought Purity had left the Empire? Kreig, Victor, Othala, and Rune was glaring at me. "Those people are criminals and Neonazis. Some of the worst people in the world, and they're here to protect this city. How can I call myself a hero if I run and hide while _they're_ here in force?"

I caught the Undersiders in the corner of my eye. I hadn't noticed them at first, because Hellhound and her dogs weren't there. Tattletale looked away when she saw they'd gotten my attention. "They're minor crooks, they're still here."

Off to the side, I caught sight of a woman with yellow hair, feathers, and a matching yellow show costume. She looked as nervous as I felt. "That's Canary. She's not a hero or a villain, she just uses her powers to sing. But she's here."

Canary had actually been in legal trouble not too long ago. The selling point of her music is that her voice has minor emotion affecting properties. There was a risk of prolonged exposure to her singing leaving someone suggestable, however. An ex-boyfriend of hers showed up at a concert in Boston and waited backstage to confront her about money, and not knowing that he'd been there for the whole show, she'd told him to go fuck himself and he got very badly hurt trying to do so. Charges had been filed, she'd cooperated, but the prosecutors came down hard with some what-ifs and the initial trial judge violated a lot of her rights as a 'precaution' based on the prosecution's claims. She'd said in an interview that early on, while she was bound and gagged in her prison cell that she'd broken down and promised anyone who would listen that she'd pay it forward if she got out of it okay.

That was the night I accidentally shot down a satellite and it landed on a corrupt judge in Boston. And then Canary's trial was reassigned to a judge who saw through the bullshit and the incident was ruled a freak accident, with Canary being cleared of all charges. In the post-acquittal interview, she mentioned taking time off from touring to make sure that this didn't happen again and the aforementioned promise. I felt less bad about hospitalizing a judge after I learned that.

I guess this was how she was paying it forward.

"Okay, okay, I get it," Opal said, defeated. "I will never forgive you if you die here, Princess. No pressure."

I pulled out the Class Cards, trying to get a feel of which of them would be the most effective here.

Saber, Caster, and Lancer were my most powerful cards, and of the three Lancer was the most versatile.

Assassin and Archer… I'm not seeing them doing much damage to Leviathan, but they might have some maneuverability.

Berserker? Maybe if the storm gets bad, but lightning against a water user seemed a bit iffy.

I could just stay in my default form…

As I cycled through the cards, I came across the Rider card. I'd only used it once when I summoned Prydwen to eat a hit when I claimed the berserker card. I'd never installed it.

A magic shield that became a ship, or a ship that became a shield, and as a shield it could be used as a surfboard. If there was _ever_ gonna be a time where that would be useful, this was it.

Everything started to quiet down, and my attention was drawn to the front of the room. Legend was up there. He was about to give a speech.

Legend… Legend the well-toned man in the white and blue suit with flame and electrical patterns. The Supreme Head of the Protectorate. A voice that dripped charisma and authority.

Legend was famous for his speeches, and I was about to hear one.

"It warms my heart," he said, "to see such an enthusiastic response to the attack on the City of Brockton Bay. I'd like to thank Dragon and Armsmaster for getting us such an early warning. We can prepare. Plan. Organize, instead of throwing ourselves into a chaotic mess as we arrive. That gives us a better chance." He paused. "...But even with that, if this is a good day, it's highly likely that one in four people in this room will die by the end of the day. Anyone having second thoughts may leave now, if they wish. There should still be time to make it to a shelter."

Not a single person moved, though there were still some murmurs.

"Now that everyone is aware of the risks, you know not to underestimate Leviathan," Legend continued. "People like to think that he's the least dangerous because he's not as big or powerful as Behemoth or as subtle and manipulative as the Simurgh, but Leviathan is faster than either of them, and his waves can cause catastrophic damage." His voice took on a stern quality. "We've had to completely redraw the map because of this beast, and I've personally seen far, far too many good men and women die because they thought a little water couldn't hurt them."

"Brockton Bay is a soft target, a location where we cannot afford to take our time and wear Leviathan down," Legend explained. "The second he makes landfall, we have to keep him in our sights at all times. We have to hit him hard, fast, and often, and do our best to push him back. We have to hurt him and fast. Killing him is a pipe dream, but he _can_ be hurt. He can bleed. The more you hurt him, the sooner he'll flee back into the sea." He looked out over everyone. "If you find your attacks aren't effective, try to support someone whose attacks are. Focus fire. If your powers synergize with someone else's then work together."

Legend gestured to Armsmaster, who took center stage. "Dragon has created Armbands meant to be worn over the wrist. The Wards are passing them out now. A screen shows the city as a grid and keeps track of your own location and the last known location of Leviathan. There are two buttons. The first sends a message to everyone, though if you are not a member of the Protectorate the message will be put on delay for three to five seconds while Dragon's programs screen it." He too became sterner. "In an emergency, say 'hard override,' to bypass the delay, but abuse of this feature will cost you message privileges. The second sets off a ping, if you're in need of rescue. Both buttons together will give a priority message, use it if you need tactical assistance."

At that time, Gallant came by and handed out armbands to everyone in our area. By the time I had my securely fastened and entered my name, I could see Glory Girl hugging the armored Ward in the corner of my eye.

"Everyone who has fought an Endbringer before!" Legend called out. "Step Forward."

All the Protectorate present, most of the out of town Wards, a girl who looked eight—Bambina if I wasn't mistaken—and a group led by a guy in a red mask and a top hat all stepped forward. I think Armsmaster recognized them because he whispered something to Miss Militia.

"The Protectorate have trained and drilled for this," Legend continued, "when in doubt follow our orders. If you are lacking direction and cannot find a Protectorate, any of these individuals can provide guidance and instruction. Now, we are dividing responders up by skills. Anyone who has high-level durability or can generate expendable minions, you're with Dragon and Alexandria."

He pointed to where Alexandria stood, and people began to form around her.

"Any melee combatants who believe that they may be able to harm Leviathan but aren't durable enough for sustained physical engagement, join Armsmaster and Chevalier."

Once more, people formed around the designated heroes. Fewer than the first group though.

"Shakers, wide area blasters, telekinetics, and anyone who can create barriers, form on Bastion. Your ability to restrict Leviathan's movements or hold back his waves will be inevaluable."

"Flyers, speedsters, teleporters, and other high-end movers will be responding to pings with Myrrdin," Legend gestured to the man with his staff and burlap robe, "while blasters and other ranged combatants are with me. Anyone who fits in more than one category, go to wherever you think you'll do best."

Where did I go? I could do all of that. I was _good_ at all of that. As people moved about, I held out the Rider Card and installed, just to see what it would do.

Exactly one second after the transformation completed, I realized that Glory Girl was staring at me.

And then I realized that I was in a skimpy red bikini and canceled the install. Hopefully, no one else noticed. Or noticed how red my face was I holstered the Class Cards and decided on search and rescue. I figure if I nothing else I could provide supporting fire and if I'd be better elsewhere I'd be told to go elsewhere.

Mister Saito was already lined up in Myrrdin's group, and a slightly giggling Glory Girl followed after me shortly.

"For those of you who are left," Legend called out, and then some people started screaming.

I couldn't make out what was happening, but I could see that part of the ceiling was caving in. Bastion's group had come into action to hold it up. I heard Legend call for Strider and then a crack of thunder sucked the air from my lungs and rattled my bones.


	30. Chapter 25

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

The streets were flooded. That much was obvious from the taste of saltwater in my mouth. I pushed myself up and coughed the fluid from my lungs and tried to make out my surroundings. I couldn't quite make out where I was, but I could see… What was left of the Boardwalk from here.

Other heroes and villains were doing the same, with other flyers taking to the air, some helping others out of the water. I could make out someone lifting the girl with the needles and the giant crossbow onto a building.

I was about to see if anyone needed help when I realized that he was there. I could see his silhouette in the rain. He was getting closer, and soon I could make him out. Thirty feet of lean muscle, hunched over with arms and legs that were too long. The lumbering gait. The long, rocking tail.

Pictures and video from endbringer fights sometimes make it out to the public, but you never really see Leviathan's face.

He didn't have one. There was no nose. No ears, no mouth. Just cracks in his perfectly smooth face with something glowing green in them that might have been eyes.

Gallons of water in a rough afterimage of him.

...I wasn't prepared for this.

People were talking, screaming, but between the cacophony and my own frayed nerves I couldn't make anything out but Legend calling out to get ready.

I didn't even think. I just moved.

A second later, I was in the air, staring at Leviathan who was now right in the middle of the group I'd been in while my watch listed off a bunch of names. I only caught the last two, telling me that Browbeat and Brandish were both deceased.

I saw Glory Girl charging Leviathan, only to be swatted away. I could see her correct in mid-air, but…

I forced myself to move. I got in front of the monster and swung Opal at his chest while focusing on how much I wanted him **_gone_**.

The ball of mana was the size of a beach ball and exploded on impact with Leviathan's chest. By itself it wasn't enough to drive him off but the sudden blast made him stumble and the follow up of Lady Photon, Laserdream, and Shielder's color-coordinated lasers, one of Mister Saito's molecule cutting sword-arrows, three black needles from crossbow girl, a ball of green fire, a bolt of lightning, one of Dragon's giant missiles, and a _lot_ of Legend's blue-white beams to push him back enough for the rest of search and rescue to get in and pull out the injured.

I landed just in time for Alexandria and Armsmaster's respective squads to start engaging Leviathan in melee, keeping him occupied.

I saw Myrrdin banishing the… corpses into one of the pocket dimensions he was famed for in time for Opal to speak up.

"How did he do that?" She asked, bending in his direction. "That was dimensional manipulation but-"

"He's a wizard," I dismissed quickly. It wasn't the time or the place for any of that. She could ask him if he and I both made it out of this. The four or five people who'd been downed had already been grabbed and nobody had pinged yet, so I wasn't sure what to do.

My troubles were solved when the wizard-hero pointed at me. "After that blast," he said, "I think you're better suited for Legend's group." Unsure of what to say, I nodded and took back to the air.

The ranged attack group had already scattered to take tactical positions and I wasn't really in a position to ask where I was best placed so I just took some empty air space and launched a cutting crescent of mana at Leviathan.

My blast left only a superficial scratch on the monster. I'd need to hit it with something bigger, but people were in the way, and…

My watch went off with a message. _"This is Tattletale. Levithan does_ _ **not**_ _have vitals the same way a human does. He most likely was never human to begin with. He might not have vitals at all, I can't verify at this time. So like… don't bother aiming for pressure points or major nerves and vessels, it won't be any more effective than anything else."_ There was something about her voice that I couldn't place.

But it did have a notable effect—some of the melee groups' members had gone from hitting center mass, thighs, and the neck to just wherever. I could even make out Armsmaster taking a swing at one of Leviathan's ankles, misting the water the beast was standing in.

But, Tattletale didn't have enough data to know if the Endbringer had any vitals at all.

"Install: Lancer!" I declared as I drew and activated the relevant card. Immediately I used Lancer's ability to draw runes in the air to create platforms that I could jump across to get closer.

As I neared melee range, I steeled my nerves by allowing myself to fall into the role of a legendary slayer of gods and monsters. I conjured runes in the air and summoned demonic spears so as to draw Leviathan's attention with the blast of fire and sea-monster bone.

"Serpent!" I cried out as I came within striking distance and summoned a spear to hand. I came to a stop on a runic platform just in front of Leviathan and with a flourish used the spear to draw the runes of the Ath nGabla in a circle to bolster the power of my Noble Phantasm. "Do you have a heart!? Gáe Bolg Alternative!"

I swung and thrusted my spear with both hands and immediately it became a beam of piercing red light that bent and twisted, pulling me with it.

I found myself behind the monster, tearing through his water-shadow and with my spear embedded in the base of the monster's tail.

It wasn't dead. But it also wasn't happy. My grip on the spear was forcibly broken as Leviathan twisted around. In a flash, I was held in its giant hand and a moment later I was sprawled out on the asphalt with some achy bones.

I pushed myself up and looked around and found that I was at least a mile away based on how small Leviathan seemed from my perspective. And then a building bent back into the side and I realized that I probably needed to thank Vista later as my perspective was cut off.

I pressed the message button on my watch. "Hard Override: People, this is Princess. Leviathan got really defensive after I used a heart seeking attack on him and hit the base of his tail, so anyone who can penetrate deep into his flesh should be aiming there."

"Also," Opal added speaking loudly so that the watch would pick her up, "he's using some kind of extra-dimensional effect to behave as though he had significantly more mass than he does. He's layered, like an onion, and each layer is progressively dense."

Once I'd sent the message, I checked where I was in relation to Leviathan and started walking off.

And then I stumbled and fell to my knees. I'd forgotten. Lancer's Noble Phantasm was a bit mana intensive.

"Princess," Opal began, "you need to take a break."

"No time for breaks when the city's being flooded," I replied. "I just… Just need to switch to something a little less mana intensive. Unless you've got a way for me to get Magical Girl level mana refresh with Lancer's power level."

Opal was silent.

"Opal."

She made a sort of whining sound.

"Opal, if there's something we can do that-"

"There's a special feature," Opal admitted reluctantly. "Many years ago, to rescue Sapphire's master from a particularly obnoxious brute, Ruby's master formed a temporary contract with Sapphire and transformed with both of them at once. It not only doubled her mana generation by bypassing several safety features and forced her bones, nerves, blood vessels, muscles, and organs to all function as secondary magical circuits. Her power increased enough to easily defeat even the strongest of servants, but channeling that much raw mana caused her body to break down from the strain," Opal sounded afraid as she spoke. "My creator was later able to use data from that incident to upgrade my sisters so that such a state could be accessed on their own, and I was constructed with that functionality, but such a thing is far too dangerous-"

"How do I do it?" I interrupted.

"No! That feature is only to be used in the most extreme of emergencies, and believe it or not this does not yet qualify."

Opal's declaration was met by my watch announcing that ten people were down and that four more-including Hookwolf-were dead.

"The situation _still_ isn't dire enough," Opal stubbornly insisted.

I shook my head and drew a card that wouldn't wear me out after one good hit. "Install: Caster."

Sufficiently equipped with my fluffy tail and magic talismans, I double-checked Leviathan's current location and made my way to him.

On my way, I passed Grue kneeling in a temporary river… A few seconds later, I turned around and offered him a hand. Right now, everyone was working together. A little courtesy was the least I could do.

I helped the crook up and he grunted his thanks, before I carried on, stopping only briefly to make sure I was still heading the right way.

I'd finally made it back to where I could see Leviathan. Off in the distance, I could see that several layers of tidal waves had been frozen solid, and Eidolon himself had joined the ranged attack group, flying through the air and attacking the monster with gouts of fire, blasts of lightning, and globes of orange light.

Eidolon and Legend together seemed to be doing most of the damage at this point. A lot of the Armsmaster and Chevalier's group had been taken out of the fight by now and I couldn't make out Dragon's suit in Alexandria's group anymore. It seemed that most of the melee fighters were staying out of the ranged group's way while they, primarily the two of the Protectorate, assaulted the beast with assorted blasts. Even the ranged group was smaller-I could make out a flyer carrying off crossbow girl.

I took a breath and started chanting caster's Merciful Sky mantra. I needed to be careful with my mana, so that meant that getting the most out of each spell. This mantra used a little bit of mana to make the following spell several times more powerful for the same cost, so…

Once I finished, I drew a talisman. I doubted that ice would be effective, this seemed like a bad place to try wind, and fire… Honestly, now that I thought about it, fire didn't seem like the best thing to use against someone with the power of 'all the water' unless it was special fire or it was all you could do.

That left one option for direct damage. I moved closer to get a clearer shot and tossed my talisman.

The paper tag impacted the monster's groin, as close to where its heart was as I could get from here, and it exploded into a curse called Void Cleft. Not fire or ice or wind or any other element. A blast of void.

Leviathan stumbled, but I couldn't be sure if that was from my curse or the dozen or so of Legend's beams that hit it at the same time, but I drew another talisman just the same.

And then the ice at the shore shattered all at once and a surge of water came right down the street. The flyers dispersed but those of us on the ground weren't so lucky.

The next thing I knew I was flat on my back in a pool of water and everything hurt. Also, turns out that I hate it when my fur is wet.

I was able to force myself up and stand in time for my watch to start listing out who was down and who was dead. I froze when I heard that Tattletale was down. She was a crook, but that thinker power of hers was vital… If she managed to come up with anything and share it, that is.

Actually, I could see her, or rather, her purple covered ass since she was face down in the water. I rushed over and pulled her up, leaning her against me… I… Kind of wished I'd taken a CPR class…

Well, improvise. I leaned her over and started on the Heimlich. If it could get something lodged in your throat out, maybe it could force liquid out of her lungs?

I wasn't sure if it was working. I was second-guessing whether this would work or not, but about ten thrusts later, the last of the seawater spilled out of her and she started coughing. I just stood there, supporting her, till she stopped and started to breathe.

"You gonna be okay?" I asked.

"I think so," she said roughly. I let her go, she wobbled for a bit before catching her balance. "Thanks." she turned around and I noticed that her mask had gotten washed away. The black makeup around her eyes was running and…

And the look in her eyes told me that she was thinking something along the lines of 'oh shit.'

And then I could see the freckles on her face.

"...Lisa?"

She turned back around and rushed off. She stumbled a little but she managed to clear my line of sight just fine while I stood there frozen by the shock and the feeling of betrayal that my best friend was a supervillain.

Just as soon as my heart sank as low as it could go, Opal spoke up. "Princess...?"

"It's fine," I lied. "There are more important things to focus on now."

I checked where Leviathan had last been seen and made my way there. I had to keep going. Had to keep helping. Had to stay busy. Had to do my part to save the day.

The search and rescue team, it seemed, had abandoned retrieving the dead in favor of rescuing the living: I passed four or five corpses on the way.

When I came across the remains of Dragon's suit, the one from earlier with the giant rockets, however, I got an idea.

"Install:" I said once I'd drawn the right card, "Saber."

Once I'd traded my ears and tail for a sword and armor, I approached the wreck and tore one of the rocket launchers loose. This one still had three missiles, and Knight of Owner's effect quickly got it back in working order.

Only a handful of people were still actively fighting Leviathan at this point, at least in melee.

The Triumvirate were there, as was Dauntless, and Chevalier, and Myrrdin. I couldn't see Armsmaster, but the watch hadn't said he was down or dead.

I could see a girl with dark red hair trying to lead a whole lot of dogs on leashes out of an abandoned-looking compound. She seemed panicked.

I hoisted Dragon's giant rockets up onto my shoulder and willed one to fire. The missile, traced in golden lines, roared like the most primal of dragons as it soared to Leviathan with bright blue flame, the pitchest black of smoke, and the smell of brimstone leaving a trail behind it.

The projectile impacted the serpent and lifted it from its feet, carrying it up into the air. I willed the explosive to twist up and carry Leviathan high into the sky and fired another rocket.

The first rocket exploded with such intensity that it was as if Hell had broken loose, and Leviathan was thrown higher into the air. I fired the final missile just in time for the second to explode, throwing Leviathan higher still into the air.

I spun around tossed the missile launcher as the final missile impacted Leviathan and exploded. The now useless weapon impacted Leviathan and created a smaller, normal explosion on contact.

I marched forward to the other heroes but collapsed into the flooded street just as I made it. I had to push myself up with Arondite, burning it into the asphalt under the water and pulling against the hilt to get to kneeling.

"I think I bought us some time," I said. "I'll take him at least a minute to land from that high up."

"Princess, you need to rest," Opal said sternly. "You've been burning through mana like there's no tomorrow and I can't replenish your reserves while you're using a card. I'm certain that you've done more than your fair share of work when it comes to defending the city from that beast and-"

Opal was cut off by the sound of thunder. Levithan's storm was getting worse.

I reached for my card holster. "Compromise," I said. "Install: Berserker!"

If Leviathan's storm was bad enough to thunder then it was bad enough for me to draw lightning from. I let the madness of Frankenstein's monster take me and…

It was different this time.

The madness was… Lesser. Less, less something.

But the rush of power that came with it was so very much _more._

Instead of the wedding gown, I was wrapped in white cloth bandages covered my torso from stem to stern with more wrapped around my thighs, calves, shins, and forearms leaving only my hands, feet, shoulders and upper arms, knees, and slightest traces of my hips exposed.

The bridal chest was embedded in some kind of apparatus. A large bladed guard across the entire staff with the headset into a pincer claw or something.

"Berserker Install: Saber Inheritance!" I declared on a reflex. I spun the Bridal Chest-the Bridal Blade, and raised it to the sky.

A massive crack of thunder and I pulled every last charge of electrical energy building in Leviathan's clouds out into a single bolt of lightning. Chevalier had been staring at me, for some reason, and the suddenness of it made him jump.

The pincer at the end of the Bridal Blade opened to accommodate the blast, and the sheer rush of power flowing into me, taking away my aches and chasing away the fatigue. There was only one thing I could say after taking it all in.

"My boyfriend's gonna _get it_ tonight!"

"Excuse me?" Legend asked as he came lower. Doing a quick look around I could see more of the surviving Capes coming into the area to regroup.

"I apologize for my Master's crudeness," Opal sassed from the Bridal Blade. "She's never going to follow through on that, they haven't even kissed yet. Berserker's mental state and social impairment manifest in my master as a sudden lack of inhibition combined with a great deal of overconfide-"

"I think I can kill Leviathan!" I interrupted suddenly. It came to me as the knowledge of how… Saberstein's powers worked.

"I can absorb energy, you all just saw me do it!" I said. "And this here can make blades out of plasma." I made a small blade to demonstrate. "If everyone with energy powers gives me a bunch of juice and then someone really strong _throws_ me at Leviathan, I can probably make a blade big and strong enough to split his ass in half."

I started twirling the Bridal Blade. "I just need enough juice to get all the way back to full Mana capacity. Lightning works best, but fire, lasers, or radiation all work in a pinch. Come on, there's like a dozen blasters here," I said noting how we' regrouped, "Don't look away Photon Mom, I can see you in the back. Come on everyone, lend me your energy!"

I could make out Armsmaster in the crowd. He was down a halberd and the one he had left had fresh welding marks. Off in the distance, I could hear a loud crash as Leviathan returned to the surface.

"Yeah," I said. "I think we just ran out of time to decide. We gonna do this or not?"

"For-the-rec-ord," Opal said as I spun her around, "I-am-op-pos-ed-to-this-plan."

"It can't possibly hurt," Legend said. "Squads one, two, and four: keep Leviathan occupied for a minute. Everyone with energy powers, shoot the teenage girl."

Just before the fighters left, I shouted out: "Wait! Alexandria, you're the biggest and strongest Heroine ever. Do you think you could be the one to throw me?"

She stared at me but didn't say anything. She didn't leave with the rest of her squad though, so I guess that means she agreed to it.

Once the melee fighters and battlefield controllers left to occupy Leviathan, the blasters spread out around me. I raised the Bridal Blade up above my head and kept it spinning. Belatedly, I realized that spinning it was actually pulling static charge out of the air. Honestly, I'd only been doing it to do it.

"Now!"

People fired-actual fire from two sources, the green fire from earlier, blue, red, purple, and other blue lasers, three different colors of lighting, big blue balls of electrical plasma from Eidolon, bolts of electricity from Dauntless's lance, what I think was a burst of gamma radiation, and something that ripples in the air all came at me and were pulled to the spinning Blade above my head, forming a sparkly rainbow kaleidoscope as they were all pulled in and the power surged into my being.

I could feel it tingling in my nerves and spilling out, flowing through the rest of my body, The power. The phenomenal power!

"This is… Enough!" I said. Reluctantly. I had to force it out. The power… It was truly amazing, but… I felt like if I kept going for too long I'd explode.

The assault stopped and I sucked up the dredges of energy that remained. I noted that it was Photon Mom that was the last one to stop offering me power.

Once I was full to bursting with converted mana, I hopped up and grabbed Alexandria by the shoulders. "Okay, now fly me up and throw me hard."

"How hard?" She asked.

"I need to be going as fast and hit with as much force as possible, so just as hard as you can. I can take it."

"I'll be holding you to that," she said and took to the air.

Instead of flying directly at Leviathan, she flew in the other direction and then took a hard right once we reached the limits of the main city.

I could feel the wind practically tearing through my hair. I'd never, ever, _ever_ even tried to fly this fast. My cheeks were vibrating from the g-force and the surge of adrenaline combined with the power rush I was already feeling was _amazing_.

Halfway through our third lap around the city, Alexandria made another sharp turn and started heading right for Leviathan.

She reached back, grabbed me by the arm, and did kind of a super-fast spin and suddenly I was flying head-first towards the monster at speeds even greater than when we were flying.

I swung the Bridal Blade out and channeled all of the power I'd absorbed into it so that a massive blade of plasma, at least as long as Leviathan himself was tall, and swung it forward just in time for the momentum to force it clean through the serpent's lower belly.

Eventually, the blade of plasma reached a point where it couldn't penetrate through anymore.

And Then the momentum carried Leviathan off of his feet. He flew with me and I swung the blade again making us spin in a circle.

We stopped moving at the exact time I slammed the monster into the beach.

"Skewered…! Plasma…! Blade!" With that declaration, I managed to force the blade an inch further in and then Leviathan and I were both engulfed in a sphere of white-hot plasma and crackling lightning.

…

…

…

My vision cleared and my ears stopped ringing a few minutes later.

Leviathan was down. He wasn't moving.

His flesh was charred black and there was a huge rift in his belly. I couldn't see any organs but I could see his bones and some kind of lump.

I stumbled back from my vantage on him and landed on my feet on the glass that used to be the beach.

I didn't intend to uninstall, but the four Cards I'd used today ejected regardless. I caught them, reholstered them…

And then what I'd just done sank in.

"...I just killed an Endbringer..."

"Princess," Opal said, "now that the monster is dead you _really_ need to rest before you overstrain yourself."

"Opal," I said. "You don't get it. I just _killed_ an _Endbringer._ No one's ever done that before. Not even Scion."

As if to illustrate my point, someone from further into the city cheered. A few more started clapping

I was about to turn back and rejoin the others when Leviathan suddenly lurched up. My eyes went wide as I found myself clenched in his fist and…

...Honestly, I wasn't sure what happened next, but I remember at least five slamming sounds and the next thing I knew I was dizzy, laying in a pile of broken glass, Leviathan was heading back into the city, and I was staring down a huge wave that was coming out from the far end of the bay. It'd maybe be here in…

One of my Class Cards had been shaken loose. I reached for it, saw which one it was…

"Fuck it," I said. Either I used it or I'd die when the wave hit. "Install: Rider."

*end*

Disclaimer: While the Heimlich maneuver _can_ be used to clear water from the lungs and throat of a near-drowning victim, it's only effective before cardiac arrest or other problems set in. The general consensus I've seen is that proper CPR is the most effective treatment and should be used if possible. Don't confuse the needs of the story for proper medical advice.


	31. Chapter 26

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

The first thing I noticed as the wave washed over me was that the wave _stopped_ when it washed over me.

The water rolling out from the beach dragged me out into the bay, but I was quickly able to get my bearings and make my way to the surface.

I found it surprisingly easy to orient myself atop Rider's surfboard and turn back to face the shore.

Leviathan wasn't moving. Even as blaster shots impacted his back all he did was stare out at the beach.

Out at me.

I felt the water rise up under me as Leviathan continued to stare at me, his glowing eyes focused on me like a laser. He was trying to make another wave, with me on it, but knowledge of how Rider's power worked was quickly filling into my head and I was able to push the wave back down with an effort of will and a channel of mana into my board.

In hindsight, I was glad that I'd only ever fought a mindless, degraded copy of Rider. Prydwen, in addition to being a ship and shield, granted the ability to conjure and control water. Even create massives waves.

As long as I had Mana to spend, I had Macro-Hydrokenisis. Just like Leviathan, and it seemed, with some mental effort, that mine was stronger than his. At least when it came to controlling the waves and tides.

Seeing that I'd canceled his wave, Leviathan started walking toward me in an uncharacteristically slow lumber.

After about five steps, however, he bolted and made his way to me at top speed, trampling what few trees, poles, and cars were still on the streets after his earlier waves.

I laid face down on my board and used my arms to turn it around before paddling further out to sea. I was surprised just how fast I was able to move in the water thanks to Rider's power—I'd managed to clear the bay and make it to the ocean proper by the time I heard the crashing splash of him diving into the water.

I had a plan. But I only had one chance to pull it off. Leviathan had already sustained significant damage. If I could get in one more good hit, then hopefully...

I turned back around in time to see a half-submerged Leviathan surging toward me like a missile. I stood up on the board and willed a wave to carry me forward, toward Leviathan as fast as I could as the adrenaline started building up in me again.

It's weird what comes to mind at times like this. As I allowed Rider's skills to guide me into the appropriate foot placement and stance, that surfing was probably something I should try at some point.

As Leviathan and I came closer and closer together, murderous intent clearly visible in the beast's body language, and the pounding of my heart the only thing I could hear, I channeled as much mana as I could into the board beneath my feet and exploded forward at an even greater speed—fast enough to even begin to lift from that water just slightly—even as I felt my body begin to burn from the strain.

"Prydwen..." I said as the wave began to curl around me. "Tube Riding!"

I took leave of my senses at that point. When I became aware again, I was in the air. _High_ in the air.

I'd gotten turned around at some point, and could see that I was behind Leviathan. He had a huge gash right at the bottom of where his ribs would be, deep enough that I could see clear through to the other side, on my left-hand side. It formed an off-center cross with the marks from when I'd impaled him not too long ago.

And then I realized that the only thing I could hear was a faint ringing in my ears.

The Rider card was ejected from my body, and since I wasn't holding the board that meant I wasn't holding Opal. I fell away from where she was floating and fell out of my Trance.

The water below me was getting closer and closer, but I couldn't bring myself to react. My eyes felt heavy and an ache was beginning to form in every fiber of my being.

Something dark-colored whooshed and I found myself in a princess carry in Alexandria's strong arms.

"Did… Did we get 'em?" I babbled without meaning to say anything.

"Leviathan's leaving," the strongest heroine in the world said. "You did good. Let's get you to the hospital, you look like Hell."

"YOU'RE RIGHT SHE DOES!" Opal shouted as she came up next to us in compact form, my lost card held in one of her wings. "Princess, do you have any idea how reckless that last stunt was? Not only did you expend far more mana than Rider's Noble Phantasm required, but I can also tell from here that you overstrained your circuits again! If you keep doing that then eventually you'll cause permanent damage and..."

I didn't want to tune Opal out, but I was sore and tired and she started sounding like the teacher in the old _Peanuts_ tv specials so I kind of had to.

I think I spaced out for a bit. The next thing I knew I was sitting in a chair in one of the waiting rooms in the hospital. No sign of Alexandria anywhere, so…

"Where?"

"The person running intake decided that exhaustion and soreness wasn't a pressing concern," Opal said bitterly as she floated into my eyeshot. "Apparently, due to concerns about secret identities and such, instead of using the emergency rooms anyone who isn't at urgent risk gets dropped either here or another room on a different floor depending on their relationship with the law."

So wait, did Alexandria carry me all the way here or did she drop me off and then… Fuck, I was too tired for this.

"You shouldn't have to wait for very long," a man's voice said. I turned my head to see a couple of people on the far side of the room and a man wearing most of a suit of armor quite a bit closer to me. Chevalier. "It's been less than an hour, a major record for fending off an Endbringer, which I think we have you to thank for." I nodded. "So, there's not that many injured, comparatively. Most people here are just waiting to see if their friends are going to make it."

"'Kay..."

"Though I do have a question for you," the armored hero said as he took a seat across from me. "You're not a parahuman, are you?"

"What?"

Chevalier looked to the others in the room and leaned forward. "This is classified information and I'm showing you quite a bit of faith telling you this: I can sense the powers of Parahumans. I can tell how much raw power a parahuman has, and I can even pick out the details of their trigger events. And I can tell that you, by all means, shouldn't have any powers, and your equipment is too advanced to be Tinker-Tech, anything that powerful can usually only be used by the Tinker who made it. So what are you?"

"I do magic," I managed to say.

"Of course you do," Chevalier said with a sigh. Then he mumbled something about Myrddin.

"I have a few questions of my own," Opal began while drifting a bit closer to the knight. "About that Myrrdin fellow… How does he do what he does?"

"Portals and pocket dimensions mostly," Chevalier replied.

"Yes, and I'm asking how he does it."

"It's his power," Chevalier replied casually. "We don't really know how powers work, though he'd tell you that it might as well be magic."

This caused Opal to grumble.

"You seem oddly invested in this," Chevalier noted.

"Sir," she began, "there is only one magic that can manipulate dimensional barriers. The Second of the True Magics, the power of Kaleidoscope. And there is only one being who can cast the Second Sorcery—"

"You're making a scene, Opal," I said lamely. Idly, I wondered if anyone else had heard the capital letters in her sentence.

"The only being who can cast the Second Sorcery is my creator, the Wizard-Marshal Lord Zeltretch and if—"

"Ahh, there's a name I haven't heard in a while," another man said. Speak of the devil, there was Myrddin now. There was a bit of a hobble in his step, but that didn't stop him from making his way over to us and sitting down next to Chevalier.

"You, you've… Met Lord Zeltretch?" Opal seemed confused.

"Oh yes," the wizard said. "Years ago. Met him in a tea shop. Odd fellow, but we ended up having an hours-long but very pleasant discussion about faith, the nature of reality, and what 'identity' would mean if there were an infinite multiverse and thus, an infinite number of people with just as much claim to being you as you yourself do." I could tell that Myrddin was smiling. "Never saw him again, but I don't think I'll ever forget it."

Opal kind of cocked to the side as Chevalier spoke up, "you never told me about that."

"It was years ago," the wizard said. "Years before I met you. Years before I even had powers." He paused for a minute. "I think it was back when I was trying to run my own business, actually."

"You never told me about that either."

"I had to give it up," Myrddin explained. "I kept getting prank calls meant for the private investigator renting the office next door. He was an eccentric man." He continued. "Never made eye contact with anyone, spoke softly. Sort of moved about like he thought he was too big and was afraid of breaking something. Carried a hand-crafted walking stick everywhere and seemed irrationally attached to outdated technology."

"You need to write a book sometime," was Chevalier's only response.

"That all raises more questions than it answers," was Opal's.

The conversation came to a lull after that. I think I nodded off at some point because the next thing I knew my eyes were closed and I was being poked in the cheek.

"Miss Dallon," I could hear Opal say. "I know that this is a delicate time for you and that you are under strict orders, but I don't think that is an appropriate bedside manner."

I blinked my eyes open. "Wha's going on?"

"I was instructed to get you on your feet as soon as the critical cases were all taken care of," Panacea said. Her voice was purely professional and I couldn't make out her face… Honestly, this was a little awkward. This was the first time I'd seen her face to face since I found out she was the one writing the Cape-fics about Vicky and I.

And then I remembered that her mom was one of the first to die tonight.

"Are you o—?"

"I don't have time to talk, gotta fix you then get back to people who need me," she interrupted. "Legend wants to talk with you asap, so… For liability's sake, I have to ask you if I have permission to use my powers on you?"

"Why does Legend want to see me?"

Panacea looked at me like I was stupid. "You almost cut an Endbringer the fuck in half. You did more damage to Leviathan in one night by yourself than everyone else has in fifteen years. Why do you _think_ he wants to see you? Now do I have permission to heal you?"

"I guess." Panacea touched her fingers to my cheek and paused for a moment.

"Well, that's new."

Well, wasn't that last thing you wanted to hear your doctor say? "What's wrong?"

"You have a lot of extra nerves," Panacea said. "Enough for an entire tertiary nervous system, except they don't seem to do anything and they're arranged like computer circuits for some reason." She hummed. "They're all inflamed pretty badly, but the weirdest thing is that… You know what the Manton Limit is, right?"

I nodded, that sounded familiar. Something about how powers usually either worked on your or everything else and usually either worked on living things or nonliving things. "So, my power only works on things that are clinically alive and aren't me. Your extra nerves don't register as dead. They don't read like a piece of brain. They're something my power _should_ work on, but it _doesn't_." she went silent for a second. "Also, you're not a Parahuman. You've got the potential to be one, but it hasn't been triggered yet. I have no idea what's up with you, but you might be some kind of freak or mutant.."

"Well, the extra nerves are probably my magic circuits," I said. "They're how I do magic."

"And if I had to hazard a guess," Opal added, "magic circuits are as much an extension of a mage's soul as they are a part of their physical bodies. If not significantly more so. I doubt that whatever 'parahuman' abilities run on is comparable to the kinds of sorcery needed to touch upon souls."

"...Magic is real," Panacea said as if she thought I was crazy. I could hear Chevalier's say 'God damn it' and Myrddin chuckle so while they weren't sitting across from me anymore, they were still in the room. "Oh, okay… Well, they say you're tired and sore… I can't do much for the soreness since that's probably from the inflamed nerves, but I can eliminate the stress toxins building up in your muscles and convert some of your body's stored sugars directly into metabolic energy help you wake up some." She paused. "If I do that, you'll crash pretty bad later tonight and when you wake up you'll be starving."

"That's fine."

"Okay, that'll take me a minute… I can also try and trigger some of your body's natural painkillers, but I can't do much more than take the edge off for a little bit without compromising your judgment and I don't know how much you're going to need that."

"Just do what you can." honestly, I wasn't sure how much she could help now that I thought about it. I was tired because I burned through all my mana. I don't think she can fix that.

However, despite my doubts, over the next few minutes, I started to feel more awake and alert. The ache in my muscles even subsided just a little bit.

"Thank you," I said, and stood up. "Uh, do I need to go to Legend or is he coming here?"

"Leave the waiting room, go down the hall till you get to the stairs, go up a floor and go right. He's in the office, room 405."

I nodded, thanked Panacea again, and marched off, Opal floating behind me, stopping only to turn, nod, and then march off again, a little confused when Myrddin called out to me "Miss Hebert, give my regards to the Blacksmith's heir."

It took a few minutes to make it to the office in question. I knocked and was told to come in, and found Legend standing in the middle of the room.

Up this close, without Frankenstein's mad enhancement and the rush of the fight to distract me, the man was an awe-inspiring figure and I wasn't sure if I would be able to speak to him.

He sat down behind the commandeered desk and beckoned me to sit across from him, which I did.

"Now, normally I'd start by offering you a place in the Wards," he said, "or, considering what you've accomplished, an offer to look for loopholes to let you come straight to the Protectorate, but Armsmaster tells me that you very strongly value your independence?"

"That's right sir," I said. Even if the offer, or, the idea of the offer had been very, very flattering…

"However," he said, "to be direct: People are going to find out about this. There were security cameras and the usual foolhards out in the thick of things trying to get cellphone footage. There's no covering up what you did tonight, and honestly, I don't think it should be covered up."

And it was at this point that I realized that it was highly likely that I'd be harassed by the media to get the story of the girl that almost killed Leviathan.

"I see you're getting it," he said. Probably reading my expression. "People are going to be talking about the girl who sent Leviathan running with a hole clean through his chest. Who outraced him in his own domain with a surfboard and then turned around and stabbed him with it. Children are going to want Princess action figures. In short," he finished, "you've just put yourself up there with Alexandria, Eidolon, and I and I want to use that."

"Use it how?" Opal asked before I could.

Legend looked to her. "There are two major problems I think that I can use your Princess to address. The first is the desperate need for hope in the face of the Endbringers, which I'm certain that you can understand that publicizing just how badly she hurt Leviathan would give hope that they can be beaten."

"And the other?"

"I'll admit that this one is a bit more selfish: There's never enough money to go around when dealing with government bureaucracy. Salaries and Tinker Budgets aren't cheap, and the Government is rather stingy. The PRT and Protectorate are occasionally dependant upon merchandise sales and donations to stay in the black. I'm not an economist, but I know that there's going to be a huge demand for Princess merchandise in the months to come."

"And you want to exploit my Master to make a profit?"

"No," Legend said, "now, it isn't entirely my call, I need to discuss it with Chief Director Costa-Brown, but what I want is to help your master work her way through copyright and trademark law to ensure that people have to pay her to use her image and offer her access to our resources in managing that image in exchange for an exclusive license and for Princess to appear with the Triumvirate and other prominent Protectorate and Wards members in some Public Relations events." He held his hands up. "She's going to be famous, maybe even world-famous, when the news of what happened tonight gets out. I'm proposing a way that lets the Protectorate spin it to restore people's lost faith and make sure she gets her fair share of the money that's inevitably going to be made on her image after tonight without her having to give up the freedom that she so values."

Sounded like a decent enough deal, but… "Is there a way to earmark the PRT's cut of the profits? You know, make sure the money you make off of selling Princess merch goes where it can do the most good?" Like making sure departments in troubled areas had up to date equipment.

"That would have to be discussed with the heads of Image, Marketing, and Accounting," Legend admitted. "Though, for what it's worth, it sounds reasonable enough to me."

I remembered that Caster had spells that were meant to help amass a fortune or attract someone who already had. A little tweaking… "I have to think about it, and talk it over with my Dad..." If he made it through the night, "but it's a very tempting offer."

"I wasn't expecting an answer tonight," Legend said with a smile. "I'll be heading back to New York in a few hours and none of this can happen if I don't clear it with director Costa-Brown first. Take a few days to think it over, then call up your Local PRT or Protectorate, have them call me and we'll set up a proper meeting."

"Okay."

There was a brief exchange of pleasantries before I was excused.

A few minutes later, Tattletale ambushed me by the stairs.

Her left foot was wrapped and she'd replaced her domino mask with a cheaper one. The black makeup she'd had around her eyes had run off in the seawater, giving her cheeks a grey stained look I hadn't noticed when I'd seen her face earlier.

"Hey," she said awkwardly. "Uh, we need to talk."

And it all came to me at once. The anger, the sadness, the feelings of betrayal that I'd shoved aside in the middle of the battle all came rushing back. And then another horrible thought came to me: She's the one who introduced me to Brian. She never told me how she met him, and he was pretty vague about what it was exactly that he did.

"If you're worried about me going after you at home or something," I said, too angry to yell, "don't be. You're not worth it."

I made my way past her, paying her no mind as I did so, went and down the stairs to the first floor and from there out of the hospital. I needed to make sure my house was still there before I had that crash that Panacea warned me about


	32. Interlude the Sixth

**Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Taylor**

Eramana smiled contentedly as her limousine drove through the American city. You'd hardly believe that just a few weeks ago one of the Endbringers had rampaged through here, but the only sign of the damage had been the glassed beach and the balding and bespectacled man directing workers near the docks and shore that Eramana had seen when she had her driver take her to the beach for a photograph.

There was a new hero who had garnered international attention, one who'd been operating in this city for a few months, and it seemed that this Princess was responsible for the minimal damage. And Eramana had always been fascinated by the more… Mystically inclined heroes and villains. How some of them actually seemed to benefit from their props and incantations.

The local Parahuman Response Team's office hadn't been severely damaged and had been opened up to the public again by the time Eramana had arranged for this trip. Her limousine pulled into the publically open parking lot and she and her attendant stepped out and made their way to the entrance. Eramana stopped to snap a picture of the building with her camera before going in.

It wasn't exactly crowded inside. Just workers going about their day. It made sense, most people would be getting back to normalcy after the attack. Most likely, the office had been opened to the public to reassure the people.

Still, it was open, and Eramana checked the directory and made her way to the gift shop. Pictures were nice, but you couldn't come to a cape hotspot without getting a souvenir T-shirt or two.

She drew a bit of attention to herself, of course. A fair-skinned and fair-haired woman of her beauty in such an expensive white dress and wearing five hundred dollar sunglasses would draw a sight. She knew that wealthy tourists visited the town, but she was old money and looked like it.

In truth, she was in town for business, but that was no reason not to have a little fun before she went to her meeting.

She stopped just outside of the gift shop. It seemed she'd spoken too soon about the public not coming. A father in mirrored sunglasses and his little girl, maybe ten to twelve, wearing a t-shirt depicting Princess floating in the air while swinging her wand forward at the people looking at the shirt hastily pulled over the clothes she was wearing beneath, tag still on, were stepping out of the gift shop. The girl was cute.

Eramana stepped out of the way so they could pass before heading in herself. She searched through the gift shop's supply of shirts and selected two, one depicting the Local Protectorate team in heroic poses and the second the shirt the girl had been wearing in Eramana's own size.

When Eramana brought the shirts up to the register, she asked the clerk "So, does Princess work for the Parahuman Response Team?"

"Uh, no," the teenager working the register said. "We're just licensing her image. She's been pretty popular ever since well, it's national news now."

"International," Eramana corrected.

"Huh?"

"I'm from Europe," she shared, "We got news of what your Princess did within two days of the attack… Is it true that she cut Jörmungandr—sorry, Leviathan, in half?"

"I asked," the young man said, "no. She just stabbed the hell out of him. So, did you come all the way here just to buy a T-shirt?"

"No," Eramana said with a laugh. "I'm here on business. Just having a bit of fun before my meeting."

"Well, both shirts will run you—"

"Oh, it doesn't matter to me," Eramana said as she handed over her bank card. "I'm quite, quite rich. Just run the card, I'm good for it."

"If you say so," the teen said and did so. "So, what is it you do?"

"I research human biology," she said. "I think I'm close to a breakthrough in understanding something major, but..." She raised a finger to her lips. "I can't share the details."

"I get it… so uh, what's up with the tall guy?" the young man gestured to Eramana's attendant.

The tall, muscular man was dressed as an old-school valet… He wasn't exactly much to look at with that mug. "He's my attendant. To protect me if I stumble across a violent confrontation or to carry heavy things for me. Right Joffery?" Joffery nodded. "Joffery doesn't speak much."

"Oh, okay then… have a nice day."

"And you too," Eramana said with a smile and left.

Eramana checked the time once she returned to the limousine. She'd have to get going, her meeting was soon. Without a word, her driver took off and made to the place of business she was meant for… she'd memorized the address, but couldn't recall the name at the moment. Something a little... on the nose, to use a local turn of phrase, if she recalled.

Her Joffrey was looking a bit pale this morning. He might be due for a medical check-up, but of course, he wouldn't say anything and he was far too loyal to leave her side unless she forced him too, not that she had much reason to be away from him.

Time passed far, far too slowly on the way to her meeting. Nothing was interesting to see on the way either, and her Joffery was never much one for conversation. In short, Eramana was _bored_ and she'd never coped well with that nonsense.

Finally, after an agonizingly slow drive, a much more frustrated Eramana told her driver that she expected the meeting to take a while and not to leave the engine running and then she, accompanied by her attendant, entered the large building.

Eramana retrieved a sheet of paper from her purse and showed it to the fair-haired woman at the front desk. The woman read it over and simply replied "this way, Ma'am."

This angered Eramana a bit, as she was a Lady, not a ma'am, but she held her tongue.

The woman led Eramana and her attendant to an elevator clearly marked "executives only" and opened it with a key. "They'll be waiting for you in the basement office," the desk-woman said as she stepped back, allowing Eramana and Joffery to enter the elevator. One of the buttons was actually labeled basement office. Eramana wasn't sure if that was convenient or just lazy, but she pressed it regardless.

The door closed and the elevator began to descend. And descend. And descend. Eramana tapped her foot impatiently. How long did it take to go to the basement? They started on the ground floor.

Finally, the doors opened and Eramana was greeted by the sight of a wooden decorative table and three men. On one side of the table stood a man in an expensive business suit. On the other was a larger man in a matching suit and for some reason a metal tiger mask.

And in the middle, actually sitting at the table, seated on a throne of blades and dressed in a concealing armor of the same, was Kaiser. The man she was here to see.

Of course. He had to make a show of this. Damned parahumans and their need for drama.

Kaiser. Anders. The man stood from his iron throne, walked around the table, stood before her… And kneeled. "Lady Einzbern," he addressed, "please tell me to what I owe the pleasure of a visit from one of Gesselschraft's finest researchers?"

Eramana von Einzbern, the last perfect homunculus on Earth Bet, was not amused.

She noted that the unmasked man, a man she vaguely recognized, seemed… Uncomfortable. She removed her sunglasses and noted that he avoided her gaze. "Mister Flieschier? Or do you prefer Krieg? What is your opinion of me and my work? And please, be honest."

Krieg took a full minute to answer. "I'd rather take my chances on Bonesaw's operating table than get on your bad side, Lady Einzbern."

Eramana was about to say that she didn't know who this Bonesaw was, she wasn't familiar with American capes, when the man in the tiger mask scoffed.

Eramana sighed. This had been such a promising day. "Joffrey?" She said, prompting her attendant to step out of the elevator. "The man in the tiger mask is being rude."

Joffrey cracked his knuckles and did what he did best. The only thing he could do, really. Eramana had done so much research on Parahuman biology but had never figured out how they work. She had, however, figured out just the right combination of physical stimulation, psychological conditioning, and just a hint of what little Alchemy still worked to Awaken someone's Origin. Joffrey had been an angry young man who signed on with a group of Neonazis to feel strong, and thanks to her his Strength was unrivaled. Too bad he was basically a mindless brute who could only follow orders. It was his own damn fault for having second thoughts after she'd already started awakening him.

Ten minutes later, Eramana was no longer bored or frustrated and Krieg left to go get a mop while Joffery shook the blood from his hands.

Kaiser had muttered something about how he should have given Hookwolf's position to Cricket instead of Stormtiger. He didn't seem to realize that Eramana's perfect ears had caught that, and she let him think she hadn't.

"To answer your earlier question, Mister Anders," Eramana began. "There's a little something my family has been researching for generations now. And thanks to your city's new celebrity, I think I'm close to a breakthrough that should help me get to the _Root_ of the problem. And your people are going to provide me with lodging while I conduct my research."


	33. Chapter 27

**Fate/Kalied Liner Prisma Taylor**

Well, things had been weird since Leviathan's attack. Not bad weird, but I was starting to second guess agreeing to Legend's plan. It was so surreal seeing people walking around in T-shirts with me on them. It was only one or two people so far, but still.

The city was mostly rebuilt by now. The damage had mostly been limited to the area near the shore, and Dad had been a bit happier than normal since the Dockworkers Association had gotten a lot of the rebuilding jobs so his boys were back in work.

Of course, the city wasn't fully stable. Oni Lee hadn't been captured, so while the Bad Boyz were on the decline there were still remnants and the Merchants were taking advantage of the Asian gang's weakness and the damages in the dock region to try and gain more territory.

I'd made a habit of patrolling the area for a few hours a day. I was just about to head out when I noticed Dad was getting ready to leave for the day. He was holding this old cane I'd never seen before.

I gestured to it. "What's that?"

He held it up in both hands. "An old family heirloom," he said in explanation. "Been in the family since the 1870s. My father, my grandfather, they used to bring it out when they felt there was likely to be trouble."

That made me a bit nervous. "Are you expecting trouble?"

"Taylor," Dad said solemnly. "On the news this morning, they announced that the dismembered corpse of a black man was found displayed on the premises of that Fortress company that donated the money and equipment to the rebuilding effort. Empire Eighty-Eight released a statement 'emphatically denying' responsibility." He sighed. "They're still investigating, but personally, I can't help but think that someone might be trying to sabotage the rebuilding effort, and since the Dockworker's Association is doing a lot of the work..."

"Do, do you want me to hang out by the dockyard today?" If Dad was worried, I was worried, and…

"I'm probably just being paranoid," Dad tried to reassure me. "I doubt that anything's gonna happen in the middle of the day. I just figured that It'd be better to be safe than sorry. You can probably do more good today than just babysitting your old man."

I didn't say anything as he finished getting ready and left, but…

Opal floated out from behind my hair. "Princess?"

"Yeah, we're spending today babysitting my Dad unless something else comes up." Paranoia or not, if he was worried enough, then I was worried. Better safe than sorry, he'd said so himself.

I waited for fifteen minutes. Enough time for him to get on his way that I could start making my own way to the Dockyard without him noticing that I was following him.

It was a relatively nice day. Not much wind, so flying was smooth. As I soared through the air down to the docks, Opal started buzzing. She'd done that from time to time ever since she decided to take on the role of a cellphone. Unfortunately, she gave her number to several people without telling me, so I wasn't sure who was calling.

"Princess," she said, "Lisa's trying to call you."

"Hang up on her." Tattletale had been trying to get into contact with me ever since I'd left her behind at the hospital. I didn't really want to listen to anything she had to say.

"Princess, I know you're hurt, but—"

"She's a criminal, Opal," I interrupted. "I trusted her, I told her my identity… How do I know she's not using me?"

"Taylor?" Opal began. It wasn't often she used my real name. "What is crime or law, anyway? Just words and ideas that people in power use. So your best friend is a thief, that doesn't mean she was faking anything."

"That outfit she insisted on buying me was probably paid for with dirty money," I dismissed. "And Brian...She set me up with Brian… What if he's..."

I hadn't seen Brian since the attack, either. I didn't want to know if my suspicions about his job or why Tattletale set us up were true.

"Princess, you're being irrational. At the very least, you should give her the chance to explain herself."

"Opal. Do you remember the time you got trapped in a shoebox?"

"Please don't remind me," Opal said with a groan.

"Well, drop it or I'll shove you into one."

"...This isn't over Princess."

After a minute of silent flight, during which I realized that I'd been turned around during my discussion with Opal and course-corrected, I noticed that someone in the streets was waving to me.

I stopped and looked down at the person, seeing a woman who… Who was wearing a Princess t-shirt.

I sighed and came down to greet my fan. Legend's plan was dependant on good public relations, after all.

I made sure to smile as I landed on the sidewalk and got a better look at the woman. She was very pale with offwhite hair and red eyes… Albino? It seemed that she'd pulled the shirt on over an expensive-looking dress and she clearly had money to burn on skin and hair care products.

I hadn't noticed it in the air, but standing off to the side of her was a tall, bulky man in a tailored suit. He had a square jaw, a scowl, and while I couldn't place it there was just something _off_ about his eyes. The woman didn't seem that concerned though.

Instead, she just smiled and said a cheerful "Hello!" She had an accent I couldn't quite place.

"Hi," I greeted back.

"Yes, Hello. My name is Eramana," she said. "I've heard all about you and I'm a big fan, Princess. I'm here in town on business and I was hoping I'd get a chance to meet you." What kind of business could a woman like her have in this part of Brockton Bay? "I'm really happy you came down… Could I trouble you for an autograph?" She said while pulling a pen and an old fashioned autograph book from a pocket she apparently had.

Sure, why not. "Okay." She opened the book to a blank page and handed it and the pen to me. "Do you want a specific message or do you just want me to sign it?"

"Whatever you're comfortable with," she said with an oversized smile. I ended up just signing it 'Princess.'

I handed the book and pen back to her. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No," she said as she pocketed her autograph book, "it was nice meeting you."

"And it was nice meeting you, too," I said as I took back to the air.

I was going to head back in the direction of the Dockyard when Opal buzzed again.

"The Parahuman response team just sent out an emergency alert," she said. "They want all available and willing Parahumans and Parahuman teams to send one or more representatives to Captain's Hill for a meeting. Since they think you're a Parahuman, I think that includes you." That was concerning.

I changed course and made my way to Captain's Hill. I probably could have made it there faster, but I was suddenly coming down with a bad case of nerves. Mysterious murder. Dad thinking that there might be trouble. And now this?

As I approached, I could make out a crowd of people that had gotten there before me… I hadn't expected there to be villains present, but I guess they said "everyone."

I very deliberately landed away from the Undersiders, with my back to them, while waiting for whatever this was about to start. I saw that New Wave was here, but Vicky was the only member of the Dallon Branch here. She saw me and walked over.

"Hey?" She said.

"Hey," I greeted back. "How have you been?"

"I'm coping," she replied. "Been staying busy. Amy hasn't exactly been okay though."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Mom found out about the you-know-what. Said Amy needed to either get counseling or get out. Apparently mom got called in in the first session, something happened, and suddenly they're in therapy together and their relationship is much better. And then Mom… Yeah."

"...Look, I've been there," referring to losing a Mom. "I, uh… I'm a bit reluctant to share this since the last person I told betrayed my trust, but I cried myself to sleep every night when my Mom died. If you need someone to talk to, or… If Amy needs someone to talk to," honestly I was reluctant to spend time with Amy after the fanfics, but…

"Thanks," Vicky replied. "I do have something to ask you… Those magic wards you put up around the house for us. When they drive someone off, is there a way to know who? Because someone tried to get into the house last night but by the time I got out to check the only sign of them was a gash in the lawn and a scorch mark from where the lightning hit them."

Well, didn't that do wonders for my sense of impending doom? "I'll come by later and see if I can't run some tracking spells."

Before Vicky could reply, the sound of a pistol went off, which drew my attention to Miss Militia who was holding a starter's pistol.

"Some of you may be aware," the heroine in the star-spangled scarf began, "about the dismembered body that was found last night. The body has been positively identified as that of former PRT Officer Thomas Calvert."

For whatever reason, this prompted Tattletale to loudly curse, but nobody paid much mind.

"An investigation of Calvert's home revealed footage from his home security system that showed Mannequin of the Slaughterhouse Nine to be the killer."

Vicky pulled her hands to her mouth. "Bonesaw!" She whispered to me. "It must have been Bonesaw trying to get to Amy last night."

"What?" I whispered back.

"I read a lot of cape stuff, okay. The Nine's MO when they're down a member is that they each find a hero or a villain they either like or want to kill and offer them a place in the group if they can pass the tests. Bonesaw usually nominates people she wants to collaborate on Tinker projects with. The attack on the house last night must have been Bonesaw trying to get in to invite Amy."

"Oh."

I turned my attention back to Miss Militia, who was talking about negotiating a cease-fire and possibly an alliance against the Nine when she was interrupted by a loud explosion that sounded like it came from across town.


End file.
